Marcus Berzofsky is a senior research statistician at RTI and RTI Fellow who has focused on survey sampling and methodology while at RTI International. He has designed complex survey samples and developed post-survey weight adjustments for both establishment and household surveys using both single and multi-stage designs. He has determined the appropriate sampling and estimation techniques for populations based on frames created from administrative sources, commercial sources, addressed-based lists, found data, and random digit dial telephone lists. He has worked with multi-frame studies and developed composite estimators to combine respondents which may appear on more than one frame. Additionally, Dr. Berzofsky has developed new methods for selecting samples from social media and creating hybrid estimates by combining nonprobability samples with probability samples. On the post-survey side of the design, he has developed imputation, weighting, and estimation methods to minimize bias and precision. Furthermore, Dr. Berzofsky conducts research in all aspects of total survey error, including measurement error, classification error, nonresponse error, coverage error, and processing error.
Currently, Dr. Berzofsky works on studies for the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) as well as several state governments and universities. He is the Principal Investigator on the NCS-X NIBRS Estimation project whose aim is to develop imputation and estimation methods to provide national- and state-level estimates data from the National Incident-Based Report System – the nation’s administrative data source of crimes reported to the police. Additionally, he is Project Direct on the Administration for Community Living’s Small Area Estimation and Geospatial Analysis Project, which aims to produce estimates of services provided to older Americans at lower levels of geography (e.g., state, county) than their surveys currently allow. Furthermore, Dr. Berzofsky works on the Ohio Medicaid Assessment Survey for Ohio State University, which is a general population survey of Ohio residents estimating access to health care and health care needs.
During his tenure at RTI, Dr. Berzofsky has designed several justice related studies. He helped modernize the methodology used on the National Crime Victimization Survey. Also, he has designed campus climate surveys for several universities to measure sexual assault rates among students at their schools. Additionally, he has designed several inmate-based surveys with the goal of better understanding the inmate population in U.S. prisons and jails. In addition to his work, Dr. Berzofsky is a Fellow of the American Statistical Association and a member of the American Association of Public Opinion Research. He holds several professional service positions. He is the President of the American Statistical Association North Carolina Chapter (2024-2025), having previously served as Vice President (2023-2024). Dr. Berzofsky serves on the Editorial Board of RTI Press. He is also the Co-Chair of International Total Survey Error Workshop organizing committee and serves as a chair member of the Washington Statistical Society and RTI International Gertrude Cox Award committee.
Expertise: Survey sampling; Analysis of complex survey data; Total survey error; Modernization of survey statistics methods