ANN ARBOR – Population Studies Center (PSC) Director Sarah Burgard has been elected Vice President of the Population Association of America (PAA) with a term that will begin Jan. 1, 2025.

One of the world’s largest professional demographic associations, PAA is known for its flagship journal, Demography, and for its annual meeting, the premier conference of demographers and population scientists from the US and abroad. 

“The PAA has been my intellectual home since I was in graduate school, and the network of incredible population researchers has improved my work immeasurably,” said Burgard. “It is an honor to be able to serve alongside my brilliant colleagues and the truly magical PAA staff.”

Burgard was also recently elected as president of the Association of Population Centers, comprising universities and research centers advancing population research and training. That two-year term also begins Jan. 1.

“It will be a busy couple of years, but will be a wonderful chance to serve these closely linked and each important organizations,” said Burgard.

Burgard is a professor of Sociology, and by courtesy, of Epidemiology and Public Policy at the University of Michigan. She is also a Research Professor in the Population Studies Center and Research Affiliate in the Survey Research Center, both at the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research.

Burgard conducts research on the social stratification of aging and health with population-based survey data, and has published extensively on the social factors underlying health disparities by socioeconomic status, gender, and race/ethnicity across the life course. 

She is the current Principal Investigator of the NIA and NICHD-funded graduate and postdoctoral training program hosted at PSC, and of its NICHD-funded population center infrastructure grant. Burgard is also one of the PIs of an NIA-funded research network that supports the careers of new investigators in the social determinants of healthy aging.

Burgard brings to the position an exemplary record of mentorship and public service. She has previously served as Sociology’s Director of Graduate Studies, ISR’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Implementation Lead, and as a member of PAA’s Board of Directors. In 2019, Burgard was awarded the Interdisciplinary Association for Population Health Science Mentoring Award and the John Dewey Award for long term commitment to undergraduate education from U-M’s College of Literature, Science, and Arts. 

In 2003, as a graduate student, Burgard earned the Dorothy S. Thomas Award, the award given by the PAA that is the highest recognition accorded to a student paper in demography. The award itself is named for Dorothy Thomas (1899-1977), a pioneering sociologist, one-time president of PAA, and lasting inspiration to Burgard and her colleagues.

PAA has also announced Marcy Carlson of the University of Wisconsin, Madison has been elected as president. Carlson is an alumna of the PSC Training Program.

The new board of directors includes Martha Bailey of UCLA, also a PSC affiliate. 

PAA has a membership of about 3,000 demographers, sociologists, economists, public health professionals, and others interested in population science.

The Population Studies Center at the Institute for Social Research is an interdisciplinary community of scholars in population research and training, and is recognized as one of the leading population centers in the world. 

Contact: Tevah Platt