CHICAGO, Feb. 21, 2012 — Today NORC at the University of Chicago announced the official opening of two new office locations in Atlanta, Georgia and in Boston, Massachusetts.

“Our new Atlanta and Boston offices allow us to better serve our clients and partners,” said John Thompson, President and CEO of NORC at the University of Chicago. “Each of our locations offers on-the-ground support and easy access to specialized expertise, allowing us to better collaborate with the academic and research communities based in these regions. There has been an increase in demand for NORC’s high-quality social science research and we are confident that this expansion will allow us to better meet that demand.”

The Atlanta office’s work is led by three NORC researchers: Vicki Pineau, a senior statistician with more than twenty-eight years of experience in survey and sample design covering a myriad of government and public interest surveys and censuses in vaccines and immunizations, health policy, income, labor force, poverty, program participation, and agriculture; David Rein, a principal research scientist in the Public Health Research department, who specializes in health economics and outcomes research with a particular focus on burden of disease studies and cost-effectiveness simulations; and Kim Williams, a Survey Director in the Public Health Research department who specializes in data preparation and deliveries, and currently manages data delivery activities for the National Survey of Children’s Health.

NORC’s new Boston office expands the reach of NORC’s Public Health Research department and is staffed by Helen H. Suh, NORC’s Environmental Health Program Area Director, an internationally recognized expert in air pollution health effects, with more than 20 years of experience leading multidisciplinary teams in environmental health research; Jennifer Benz, Research Scientist, an evaluator and analyst with expertise in health disparities, prevention programs, and state-level health policy and politics; and Phoebe Chang, Senior Research Analyst, who focuses on the health effects from environmental exposures.

In addition to its new offices in Atlanta and Boston, NORC has long-time offices in Chicago’s Loop, on the campus of the University of Chicago, in Bethesda, MD, and Washington, DC, as well as an active international operations team, and a nationwide field staff. NORC recently expanded and reconfigured its office space in Bethesda, adding more than 7,500 square feet to increase capacity and enhance collaboration among research departments.