Data Bank Staff

Data Bank Board Bill Berman, chair Ann Berman Feld Sergio DellaPergola Alice Goldstein Sidney Goldstein Henry Goodman Joseph Hollander Bethamie Horowitz Bruce Phillips Mimi Lieber Richard Rockwell Barbara Rosenthal Ira Sheskin Laurence Kotler- Berkowitz, ex-officio

Arnold Dashefsky, Director

Arnie is a professor of sociology at the University of Connecticut in Storrs (UConn), having earned the B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in sociology and also a Bachelor of Hebrew Literature. A former associate head of UConn's sociology department, he currently serves as the founding Director of the Center for Judaic Studies and Contemporary Jewish Life, located in the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center. Arnie is also one of the founding members of the Association for the Social Scientific Study of Jewry, created in 1971, serving as its first secretary-treasurer and later, as vice-president, president, and editor of its journal, Contemporary Jewry, as well as a former secretary-treasurer and board member of the Association for Jewish Studies.

In addition, he has served as a consultant to the American Jewish Committee, Commission on Jewish Education of the Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford, Jewish Education Association of MetroWest (NJ), Rhode Island Department of Vocational Education Sex Equity Project, and the United Jewish Appeal. He has been a visiting scholar at Stanford University, George Washington University and Florida Atlantic University.

He has edited or co-authored seven books and numerous articles and papers on a variety of topics in sociology and Jewish studies focusing on Jewish identity, family, ethnicity, emigration, and interfaith marriage. His most recent book is entitled: Charitable Choices: Philanthropic Decisions of Donors in the American Jewish Community (co-authored with Bernard Lazerwitz) and published by Lexington Books in 2009. He is currently working on two books, one examining Jewish identities in the 21st century and the other updating an earlier volume on American emigration.

Ron Miller, Associate Director

Ron Miller rejoined the Data Bank in October, 2005, almost a decade after he initially joined the Data Bank, working with the late Dr. Egon Mayer at the Graduate Center of City University of New York (CUNY) to move the Data Bank from a tape and cartridge main frame storage system to a "floppy-disk-based" data file distribution system. Stimulated by his Data Bank tenure, after 25 years of teaching research methods and computer data analysis programs, Ron retired as Associate Professor of Sociology at Brooklyn College, CUNY to dedicate himself to a life inspired by Jewish data.

Ron earned his Ph.D. from New York University in 1971 in sociology. His earlier degrees, a M. A, from the University of Michigan 1964 and a B. A. from Brooklyn College 1963, reflected his interest in American history.

Working with Jack Ukeles, Ron has also served as (part-time) Vice-President for Research at Ukeles Associates, Inc, where he has served as survey director for many of the Jewish population studies conducted by Ukeles Associates and archived at the Data Bank. These studies include: Baltimore 2010, Cincinnati 2008, Denver 2007, Atlanta 2006, North Metro Atlanta 2004, San Diego 2003, New York 2002, Phoenix 2002, Pittsburgh 2002, Baltimore 1999, Palm Springs and the Coachella Valley 1998, Denver 1997, and Philadelphia 1996.

Currently working with Social Science Research Solutions (SSRS) and Ukeles Associates in a strategic alliance called Jewish Policy and Action Research (JPAR), Ron Miller has been the survey research director for the Jewish Community Studies of Metropolitan Chicago (2010), Cleveland (2011 in progress) and New York (2011 in progress).

Cory Lebson, Associate Director for Information Technology

Cory maintains the Data Bank archive and serves as the primary point of contact with Data Bank end users. He holds a B.S. in Psychology from the University of Maryland.  He has a M.A. from UConn in sociology.  Arnie served as his graduate advisor during his studies in this program.  His master's thesis, "Challenges to Using the Same Measures of Religiosity for Both Christians and Jews" was based on NJPS 1990 data.  He also has a M.B.A. from UConn, with a focus on management of technology and marketing.

Cory has several publications, including a book chapter in Dana Even Kaplan's Platforms and Prayer Books: Theological and Liturgical Perspectives on Reform Judaism, as well as an article in Contemporary Jewry. He also owns Lebsontech LLC, a small usability & market research business in Silver Spring, Maryland and is the current president of the Usability Professionals' Association Washington DC chapter.

Marc Maynard, Data Archivist and Director for Technical Services, Roper Center for Public Opinion Research

Marc is primarily responsible for the development of access tolls such as iPOLL, the Center's question retrieval system and directing efforts to upgrade data access services. He is also instrumental in developing the current systems for data archiving, implementing the best practices in data preservation into the processing workflow. Marc's MA in Information Technology is from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and he has a BA from the School of Business at the University of Connecticut. Marc is an active participant in the International Association of Social Science Information Service and Technology, The National Digital Stewardship Alliance and serves on the Data Documentation Alliance Expert Committee.

Marc's publications include works in the Journal of Economic and Social Measurement and the Social Science Computer Review. He regularly presents at national and international conferences on metadata integration and standards, data archive management, and application design and web development.