Educational Background

• Ph.D. 2007; Survey Methodology
  Interdepartmental Program in Survey Methodology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
  Dissertation Committee: Robert M. Groves (Chair), Norman Bradburn, Roderick J.A. Little, Trivellore E. Raghunathan, Yu Xie
• MS 2003; Survey Methodology, Statistical Science concentration
  Joint Program in Survey Methodology, University of Maryland, College Park
• BA 1999; Mathematical Methods in the Social Sciences and Sociology
  Northwestern University, cum laude with Honors in Mathematical Methods in the Social Sciences

Teaching

Assistant Professor, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Honors and Awards

• Principal Investigator, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Layman grant proposal. Changes in Survey Recruitment Protocols and Their Effects on Survey Nonresponse Bias and Measurement Error. November 2008. Funded by UNL Office of Research. Jolene Smyth, co-investigator. 2009.
• Co-investigator, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Layman grant proposal. Using Eye Tracking to Understand the Relationship Between Literacy, Survey Design, and Data Quality. November 2008. Funded by UNL Office of Reserach. Jolene Smyth (PI). 2009.
• Distinguished Dissertation Award, Honorable Mention, University of Michigan, 2008.
• Travel Grant, Second International Total Survey Error Workshop ($500), 2008.
• National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Research Grant SES-0620228. ($12,000), 2006.
• AAPOR T-Shirt Slogan Winner, 2007.
• Abt Fellow, University of Michigan, 2003-2005.
• Conference Fellow, International Conference on Questionnaire Development, Evaluation and Testings Methods, 2002.
• Outstanding Graduate Student, Washington Statistical Society, 2002.
• Second Place winner, Jeopardy!, 2001.
• Graduate School Fellowship, University of Maryland, College Park, 2001-2002.
• BA, Northwestern University, Cum Laude, 1999.
• Departmental Honors, Mathematical Methods in the Social Sciences, Northwestern University, 1999.
• Junior Fellow, Joint Program in Survey Methodology. Univeristy of Maryland, College Park, 1998.

Professional Affiliations

• American Association for Public Opinion Research
• American Sociological Association
• American Statistical Association
• Midwest Association for Public Opinion Research

Selected Publications

• Kreuter, Frauke, Kristen Olson, James Wagner, Ting Yan, Trena Ezzati-Rice, Carolina Casas-Cordero, Michael Lemay, Andy Peytchev, Robert M. Groves, Trivellore E. Raghunathan. "Using Proxy Measures and Other Correlates of Survey Outcomes to Adjust for Nonresponse: Examples from Multiple Surveys." Forthcoming. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society A. July 2009.
• Garabrant, David H., Alfred Franzblau, James Lepkowski, Brenda W. Gillespie, Peter Adriaens, Avery Demond, Barbara Ward, Kathy LaDronka, Elizabeth Hedgeman, Kristine Knutson, Lynn Zwica, Kristen Olson, Timothy Towey, Qixuan Chen, Biling Hong. 2009. "The University of Michigan Dioxin Exposure Study: Methods for an Environmental Exposure Study of Polycholorinated Dioxins, Furans and Biphenyls." Environmental Health Perspectives. 117 (5): 803-810.
• Garabrant, David H., Alfred Franzblau, James Lepkowski, Brenda W. Gillespie, Peter Adriaens, Avery Demond, Elizabeth Hedgeman, Kristine Knutson, Lynn Zwica, Kristen Olson, Timothy Towey, Qixuan Chen, Biling Hong, Chiung-Wen Chang, Shin-Yuan Lee, Barbara Ward, Kathy LaDronka, William Luksemburg, Martha Maier. 2009. "The University of Michigan Dioxin Exposure Study: Predictors of Human Serum Dioxin Concentrations in Midland and Saginaw, Michigan." Environmental Health Perspectives. 117 (5):818-824.
• Hedgeman, Elizabeth, Qixuan Chen, Biling Hong, Chiung-Wen Chang, Kristen Olson, Kathy LaDronka, Barbara Ward, Peter Adriaens, Avery Demond, Brenda W. Gillespie, James Lepkowski, Alfred Franzblau, David H. Garabrant. 2009. "The University of Michigan Dioxin Exposure Study: Population Survey Results and Serum Concentrations for Polychlorinated Dioxins, Furans and Biphenyls." Environmental Health Perspectives. 117(5):811-817.
• Groves, Robert M., J. Michael Brick, Mick Couper, William Kalsbeek, Brian Harris-Kojetin, Frauke Kreuter, Beth-Ellen Pennell, Trivellore Raghunathan, Barry Schouten, Tom Smith, Roger Tourangeau, Ashley Bowers, Matthew Jans, Courtney Kennedy, Rachel Levenstein, Kristen Olson, Emilia Peytcheva, Sonja Ziniel, and James Wagner. 2008. Issue Facing the Field: Alternative Practical Measures of Representativeness of Survey Respondent Pools. Survey Practice. October. No pp. http://surveypractice.org/2008/10/30/issues-facing-the-field/#more-302.
• Demond, Avery, Peter Adrianens, Timothy Towey, Shu-Chi Chang, Biling Hong, Qixuan Chen, Chiung-Wen Chang, Alfred Faranzblau, David H. Garabrant, Brenda W. Gillespie, Elizabeth Hedgeman, Kristine Knutson, Shih-Yuan Lee, James Lepkowski, Kristen Olson, Barbara Ward, Lynn Zwica, William Luksemburg, Martha Maier. 2008. "Statistical Comparison of Residential Soil Concentrations of PCDDs, PCDFs and PCBs from Two Communities in Michigan." Environmental Science and Technology. 42(15): 5441-5448.
• Olson, Kristen. 2008. "Double-barreled question." Encyclopedia of Survey Research Methods. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
• Peytchev, Andy and Kristen Olson. 2007. "Using interviewer Observations to Improve Nonresponse Adjustments: NES 2004." Proceedings of American Statistical Association, Survey Research Methodology Section.
• Olson, Kristen and Courtney Kennedy. 2006. "Examination of the Relationship between Nonresponse and Measurement Error in a Validation Study of Alumni." Proceedings of the American Statistical Association, Survey Research Methodology Section.

Selected Presentations

• Kreuter, Frauke and Kristen Olson. "Are We Adjusting Response Rates or Survey Variables? The Effects of Multiple Auxiliary Variables on Nonresponse Adjustment." Paper presented at the American Association for Public Opinion Research annual meeting. Hollywood, FL. May 2009.
• Feng, Chun and Kristen Olson. "An Examination of the Relationship between Panel Attrition and Measurement Error." Paper presented at the American Association for Public Opinion Research annual meeting. Hollywood, FL. May 2009.
• Pearson, Jennie E., Ying Wang, Kristen Olson, and Jolene D. Smyth. "Development of a new scale to measure literacy without a reading assessment. Poster presented at the American Association for Public Opinion Research annual meeting. Hollywood, FL. May 2009.
• Smyth, Jolene, Kristen Olson, and Ashley Richards. "Unraveling Mode Preference." Paper presented at the American Association for Public Opinion Research annual meeting. Hollywood, FL. May 2009.
• Olson, Kristen and Robert M. Groves. “An Examination of Within-Person Variation in Response Propensity over the Data Collection Field Period.” Paper presented at the International Workshop for Household Survey Nonresponse. Ljubljana, Slovenia. September 2008.
• Olson, Kristen, Chun Feng and Lindsey Witt. “When do nonresponse follow-ups improve or reduce data quality? A meta-analysis of the existing literature.” Paper presented at GESIS-ZUMA. Mannheim, Germany. August 2008.
• Olson, Kristen. “When do nonresponse follow-ups improve or reduce data quality? A meta-analysis of the existing literature.” Paper presented at the Second International Total Survey Error Workshop. June 2008.
• Olson, Kristen and Lindsey Witt. "Are we keeping the people who used to stay? Changes in correlates of panel survey attrition over time." Paper presented at the 2008 Annual Meeting of the American Association of Public Opinion Research. New Orleans, LA. May 2008.
• Zeng, Wei and Kristen Olson. "How effective are last year's survey nonresponse adjustments? An examination of nonresponse adjustments over time." Paper presented at the 2008 Annual Meeting of the American Association of Public Opinion Research. New Orleans, LA. May 2008.
• Pearson, Jennie, Kristen Olson, and An Liu. "And Stay Out! The Effect of Access Impediments on Nonresponse Bias in Household Surveys." Paper presented at the 2008 Annual Meeting of the American Association of Public Opinion Research. New Orleans, LA. May 2008.
• Olson, Kristen. “Anticipating Nonresponse Bias in Observational Studies.” Paper presented at the Midwest Association for Public Opinion Research Annual Meeting. Chicago, IL. November 2007.
• Peytchev, Andy and Kristen Olson. 2007. “Using Interviewer Observations to Improve Nonresponse Adjustments: NES 2004.” Paper presented at the Joint Statistical Meetings. Salt Lake City, UT. August 2007.
• Olson, Kristen. “Do Reluctant Respondents Decrease Data Quality? The Relationship between Response Propensity and Measurement Error.” Paper presented at the American Association of Public Opinion Research Annual Meeting. Anaheim, CA. May 2007.
• Olson, Kristen. “Survey participation, survey nonresponse bias, measurement error bias, and total bias.” Invited presentation at 2007 DC-AAPOR Workshop on Nonresponse Bias in Household Surveys. Washington, DC. March 2007.
• Olson, Kristen and James M. Lepkowski. “Advance Letters and Nonresponse Bias in an Environmental Contamination Survey.” Paper presented at the Midwest Association of Public Opinion Research Annual Meeting. Chicago, IL. November 2006.
• Olson, Kristen. “An investigation of the Nexus of Survey Nonresponse Error and Measurement Error.” Paper presented at the International Workshop on Household Survey Nonresponse,.Omaha, NE. August 2006.
• Olson, Kristen, Jennifer Sinibaldi, James M. Lepkowski, Barbara Lohr Ward, and Kathy Ladronka. “Examination of Nonresponse Bias in the University of Michigan Dioxin Exposure Study.” Poster presented at the 26th International Symposium on Halogenated Persistent Organic Pollutants. Oslo, Norway. August 2006.
• Olson, Kristen, Barbara Lohr Ward, Elizabeth Hedgeman, Jenny Bandyk, and Kathy LaDronka, Kirsten Alcser, Anthony Collings, Alfred Franzblau, James M. Lepkowski. “Communicating Complex Research Results Regarding Environmental Risk to a Lay Audience: Experiences from the University of Michigan Dioxin Exposure Study.” Poster presented at the 26th International Symposium on Halogenated Persistent Organic Pollutants. Oslo, Norway. August 2006.
• Olson, Kristen, Jennifer Sinibaldi, and Jim Lepkowski. “Analysis of a New Form of Contact Observations.” Poster presented at the American Association of Public Opinion Research Annual Meeting. Montreal, Canada. May 2006.
• Kennedy, Courtney and Kristen Olson. “Examination of the Relationship between Nonresponse and Measurement Error in a Validation Study of Alumni.” Paper presented at the American Association of Public Opinion Research Annual Meeting. Montreal, Canada. May 2006.
• Olson, Kristen, Trivellore Raghunathan and Jim Lepkowski. “Bayesian Methods for Estimating Sample Size in Surveys with Multiple Levels of Screening, Eligibility, and Nonresponse.” Paper presented at the Joint Statistical Meetings. Minneapolis, MN. August 2005.
• Olson, Kristen, Jennifer Sinibaldi, and Jim Lepkowski. “A New Form of Contact Observations.” Paper presented at the Midwest Association of Public Opinion Research. Chicago, IL. November 2005.
• Olson, Kristen, Mary Cay Murray, Jessica Cardoni, Mike Battaglia, and Jim Lepkowski. “Data Quality and Partial Interviews in a Large Telephone Screening Survey.” Poster presented at the American Association of Public Opinion Research. Miami Beach, FL. May 2005.
• Olson, Kristen, Mary Cay Murray, Jessica Cardoni, Mike Battaglia, and Jim Lepkowski. “Breaking Off in the Middle: Partial Interviews in a Large Telephone Survey.” Paper presented at the Midwest Association of Public Opinion Research. Chicago, IL. November 2004.
• Olson, Kristen, Gordon Willis and Anne Hartman. “Reliability of Attitudes on Smoking in Public Places: Analyses from the 1993 Tobacco Use Supplement in the Current Population Survey.” Paper presented at the American Association for Public Opinion Research Annual Meeting. Phoenix, AZ. May 2004.

Links

• http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/sociologyfacpub/

Service

Professional Service

• Section Editor, Research Synthesis Section, Public Opinion Quarterly, 2008-present.
• Invited Member, AAPOR Special Committee on 2008 Presidential Primary Polling, American Association for Public Opinion Research, 2008.
• Ad-hoc reviewer for National Institutes of Health AmericanRecovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) proposals.
• Ad-hoc reviewer for Public Opinion Quarterly, Sociological Methods and Research, Journal of Official Statistics, International Journal of Public Opinion Research, Psychological Reports, Demography..
• Ad-hoc reviewer for National Science Foundation SES-MMS grant proposals.