Since January 2004, Mary Jo Hoeksema has been the Director of Government Affairs for the Population Association of America and Association of Population Centers.  In addition to representing PAA and APC, Ms. Hoeksema has co-directed The Census Project since 2008.  Prior to her position with PAA/APC, Ms. Hoeksema worked at the National Institutes of Health for approximately 10 years, as the Legislative Officer at the National Institute on Aging and as the Special Assistant to the Director of the NIH Office of Policy of Extramural Research Administration.  Ms. Hoeksema served as a Legislative Assistant for Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro and Legislative Correspondent for U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman.  Ms. Hoeksema has a Master of Public Administration from the George Washington University and is a former Presidential Management Fellow. She is the current president of the Association of Public Data Users.

Howard is the Insights Association’s lobbyist for the marketing research and data analytics industry, focusing primarily on consumer privacy and data security, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), tort reform, and the funding and integrity of the decennial Census and the American Community Survey (ACS). He has also been co-director of the Census Project since early 2018.

Before the Insights Association, he worked in Congress as senior legislative staffer for then-Representatives Christopher Cox (CA-48) and Cliff Stearns (FL-06). He also worked more than four years with a science policy think tank, working to improve the understanding of scientific and social research and methodology among journalists and policymakers. Howard formerly served on the Board of Directors for the National Institute for Lobbying and Ethics and is a past member of the Board of Directors for the Association of Government Relations Professionals. He has an MA International Relations from the University of Essex in England and a BA Political Studies from Trent University in Canada, and has obtained the Certified Association Executive (CAE), Professional Lobbying Certificate (PLC) and the Public Policy Certificate (PPC).

Howard’s father was a statistics professor and decades-long advisor to (and critic of) the Census Bureau, giving him deep Census roots.

Steve Jost is Senior Vice President, Content Strategy for Subject Matter, and a consultant to The Census Project. He is a former Associate Director for Communications at the Census Bureau, where he led the massive outreach and advertising efforts in support of both the 2000 and 2010 Census. Steve also previously worked on Census oversight and funding on the Hill.