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NORC at the University Chicago

Beth Fisher

Senior Research Director
Economics, Justice & Society
Beth has extensive project management experience with field data collections, with a focus on population and housing studies.

Beth is a senior research director in the Economics, Justice & Society department at NORC at the University of Chicago, with nearly two decades of experience conducting social science research and field data collection. She joined NORC as a survey specialist in 2008 and has since worked on a variety of field, web, and telephone data collection projects in positions of increasing responsibility. Beth has experience with questionnaire development and testing, including cognitive testing of web and CAPI instruments, interviewer training and fielding, and development of respondent materials. She has also supported data collection through OMB package development, budget monitoring, and IRB submissions. On the data processing side, she has been responsible for preparation of delivery files, including data coding and validation, development of analytic documentation, and preparing public use data files.

Her experience at NORC spans a wide range of topical areas and projects, including the General Social Survey, the Census of Tribal Law Enforcement Agencies and Census of Tribal Court Systems, the National Study of Congregations’ Economic Practices, the Food Distribution on Indian Reservations Study, the Assessment of Native American and Alaska Native Housing Needs, the Resident Relocation Survey, and Making Connections.

Project Contributions

The General Social Survey

The most rigorous, widely used data on the attitudes, opinions, and behaviors of the American public

Client:

The National Science Foundation

Census of Tribal Law Enforcement Agencies

Collecting the 2025 Census of Tribal Law Enforcement Agencies Data

Client:

Bureau of Justice Statistics

Census of Tribal Court Systems

Collecting the 2025 Census of Tribal Court Systems Data

Client:

Bureau of Justice Statistics

Tribal Law Enforcement Agencies Grow Rapidly but Remain Under-Resourced

National Congregations Study

The first-ever high-quality survey of a nationally representative sample of congregations

Funder:

Lilly Endowment with additional support from the John Templeton Foundation and the Pew Research Center

Prosecutorial Discretion in Probation Revocations

Exploring the prosecutor’s role in setting supervision conditions and in the decisions made regarding those who violate them

Client:

Arnold Ventures LLC

Evaluation of Pennsylvania Community Violence Intervention Programs

Evaluating Pennsylvania’s community efforts to intervene and prevent violence across the state

Client:

Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency

Toward Understanding Deradicalization in the U.S.

Evaluating and assessing Parents for Peace, a U.S.-based deradicalization program

Client:

National Institute of Justice

New Resources for Parenting Teens and Navigating Adolescent LGBTQ+ Relationships

Publications

Research Library & Findings