PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] – PSTC alumnae Jennifer Park has received the 2018 Excellence in Public Service Award from the Population Association of America (PAA). Park ('04 PhD in Sociology) currently works for the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe in Geneva, Switzerland. 

Park was selected for the award in recognition of her outstanding service and leadership during her tenure at the U.S. Office of Management and Budget in the Office of Statistical and Science Policy, where she worked with the population research community on numerous trans-agency initiatives. In particular, she chaired two interagency working groups to improve sexual orientation and gender identity data collection in the federal statistical system and to develop recommendations for revising federal race and ethnicity standards.

Following her graduation from Brown, Park was a postdoc at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education. She has worked as a study director for the National Center for Education Statistics and as a senior scientist at the NIH. 

The Excellence in Public Service Award was created by the PAA Board of Directors in 2008 "to honor federal, state, and local policymakers and staff who have been especially supportive of demographic—or population—research, and the federal agencies that fund or support it." Alex Keenan of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee was also a recipient this year. 

Watch the award ceremony here.