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Wayne Hatcher

Pronouns: He/Him

Wayne is a nationally and internationally recognized expert on large scale survey and census data collection programs.

Wayne is a consultant working with the Economics, Justice & Society department and the Field Operations department at NORC. He works to evaluate and improve field, web and telephone survey data collection methods.

He led a team that developed innovative national field survey staff recruiting techniques and strategies. Wayne evaluated, across the data collection industry, declining survey response rates and helped develop strategies to mitigate these declines. He provided feedback on personal interview strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic, monitoring what other survey organizations were doing to conduct field work, and ways to keep the field staff and survey respondents safe. He has provided guidance on overcoming survey staffing deficiencies and how to enhance remote and in-person training.

Wayne brings 50 years of data collection experience in the private and government sectors to NORC. He served as the Associate Director for Field Operations at the Census Bureau where he provided executive leadership on all national data collection programs, leading a staff of more than 10,000 employees. He managed staff working out of Census headquarters,  all regional offices, all telephone data collection centers and at the National Processing Center. He oversaw the development of national remote and in person training programs, led innovations in survey and census data collection and worked with staff to improve data collection quality and timeliness. Before this position, Wayne served in a wide variety of regional leadership positions, working out of the Charlotte NC, Detroit MI, Denver Co, Philadelphia PA, and Dallas TX regional offices of the Census Bureau. He managed survey and census operations for these five regional offices and worked as a leader and a consultant on the 1980, 1990, 2000, 2010 and 2020 censuses.

Prior to working with the Census Bureau, Wayne was an executive with several data collection and data analysis companies. He oversaw the development of surveys and political polls for clients, conducted local censuses, provided in depth demographic analysis to clients, and was an expert in the field of reapportionment and redistricting.

Wayne has authored papers and made presentations on survey and census data collection, community outreach and respondent relations at the Joint Statistical Meeting of the American Statistical Association, FedCASIC, IFD&TC and other national, regional and local conferences.

Education

BA

Louisiana Tech University

Honors & Awards

Gold Medal for Leadership in Organizational Efficiency | 2013

U.S. Department of Commerce

Bronze Medal | 1999

U.S. Census Bureau, Leadership Planning for 2000 Census