Rob Daves

Rob Daves, our Director of National Studies, is a nationally renowned opinion researcher based in Minnesota. He spent two decades directing the strategic and news research for one of the top ten newspapers in the United States, where he also directed one of the most accurate and respected media polls in the nation.

Although he’s conducted market research in the health care, finance and publishing industries, he specializes in print media and web audience analysis and segmentation, brand and image measurement, survey methodology and statistical analysis.

Rob received an M.A. degree in journalism from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill where he concentrated in mass communications research and marketing management.  He received a B. S. in Sociology (magna cum laude) from Western Carolina University.  His professional experience includes working as a newspaper reporter, photographer, copy editor, assistant sport edition and news editor.  More recently he was one of a team that won the Innovators Award from the American Association for Public Opinion Research for his work on response rate measurement.   In addition to being a past president of the Midwest Association for Public Opinion Research, Daves also is a MAPOR Fellow.

He is the author or coauthor of four book chapters on media polling; several journal articles; and many professional papers that deal with survey accuracy.  Rob currently serves on AAPOR’s Executive Council as its immediate Past President.