PULLMAN, Wash. — Don A. Dillman, Regents Professor and the Thomas S. Foley Distinguished Professor of Government and Public Policy in the Departments of Community and Rural Sociology and Sociology and the Social and Economic Sciences Research Center at Washington State University, has been selected to serve on the Federal Economic Statistics Advisory Committee for the next three years.
“Don’s appointment to the advisory committee recognizes his long history of outstanding scholarship and will enable the federal government to make better decisions,” said James N. Petersen, vice provost for research at WSU.
The FESAC was created in 1999 by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Census Bureau to examine the agencies programs and provide advice on research, statistical methodology and other technical matters related to the collection of federal economic statistics.
Committee members include economists, statisticians and behavioral scientists recognized for their achievements and objectivity in their fields.
Dillman, a member of the WSU faculty since 1969, is recognized internationally as a major contributor to the development of modern mail, telephone and Internet survey methods.
In 1970, he was founding coordinator of the Social and Economic Sciences Research Center Public Opinion Laboratory, one of the first university-based telephone survey laboratories in the United States.
His 1978 book, “Mail and Telephone Surveys: The Total Design Method,” was the first to provide detailed procedures for conducting surveys by these methods. From 1991 until 1995, Dillman was the senior survey methodologist in the Office of the Director, U.S. Bureau of the Census. He led the development of new questionnaire designs and procedures for the 2000 Decennial Census and other government surveys.
He received the Roger Herriot Award for innovation in federal statistics in recognition of this work in September 2000.
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