From the CHRR Director’s Desk Issue #38

June 16, 2025

From the CHRR Director’s Desk Issue #38

Celebrating APP at 8 years

By Stephen M. Gavazzi, Ph.D.

The Latest News, Views, and Announcements

What’s New at CHRR

The American Population Panel (APP) is 8 years old this month! The fact that the APP is now a year older is hardly news, but there certainly is a lot of newfound vigor in this initiative. Most importantly, the past year of research using the APP has been greatly enhanced by the inaugural efforts to conduct longitudinal research. In previous newsletters I have mentioned the longitudinal work of Chris Knoester, Leeann Lower-Hoppe, and colleagues on sports-related topics, my own longitudinal work with West Virginia University’s Gordon Gee and the Ohio State Chase Center’s Lee Strang and Jonathan Spiegler on public perceptions of higher education, and of course our very first longitudinal project on distracted driving conducted by Brittany Shoots-Reinhard. At present, we have a longitudinal survey in the field for Erin Holmes and her colleagues at Brigham Young University as part of a second wave of data collection for the U.S. Dads study (there also is a third wave of data collection already in the planning stages!). Next up will be the launch of a climate change survey that is being conducted in collaboration with Second Nature, an organization committed to accelerating climate action in and through higher education. So, there is lots to celebrate in the way of facilitating innovate research on the occasion of the APP’s 8th birthday!

CHRR's Leadership Team

Members of the Leadership Team have been participating in a series of discussions about project management over the course of the last month. A great deal of the heavy lifting in these conversations has surrounded time reporting. Our discussions have uncovered the need to ensure that all CHRR team members are clear about the meaning underlying the categories we currently use to report time. Hence, the Leadership Team is putting together a set of instructions that should help clarify the use of those categories when filling out our current time sheets. Eventually, team members hope to use these clarifying exercises as a prelude to the introduction of new software that will help to streamline our time reporting efforts.

CHRR Team Member Celebrations

“The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team."” -Phil Jackson

This month we are observing the work anniversaries of two valued employees:

  • Winston Gaynor, 18 years of service to CHRR.
  • Caroline Barto, 3 years of service to CHRR.

Thank you for all that the both of you do to advance our technological and data science capabilities!

Things You Might Want to Know

Three New NSASS Publications Based on APP Research Activities

NSASS logo

The American Population Panel (APP) got its start as a data collection effort for the National Sports and Society Survey (NSASS) work conducted by Ohio State sociology professor Chris Knoester and colleagues. Three new articles recently published in 2025 in the Sociology of Sport Journal include the following: