Hailing from Herndon, Virginia, Sean Johnson is a Survey Operations Manager at the Center for Survey Research. He attended the University of Virginia, where he received his BA in Sociology with a minor in Government in December 2018.

Sean joined CSR in January 2018 as a telephone interviewer in the CATI Lab and has held two other positions with CSR, Research Assistant and Assistant Manager of Survey Operations. He has since worked on many projects, including the UVA Diversity Climate Survey, which helped UVA to learn valuable information about how its students and employees feel about the University community. He has also assisted with BeHeardCVA, a Central VA survey panel. He hopes to continue to help BeHeardCVA grow into a project that can provide information for a multitude of projects that allow those in Central Virginia to have their voices heard.

One of the things Sean enjoys most about his work is the opportunities it provides to learn new skills and face new challenges, which allows him to keep growing and learning ways to do his job better.

What does public service mean to you?

Having a profession where I am able provide a service to the public is very important. My role at CSR allows me to provide a public service in many ways. I setup and distribute surveys, oversee tracking and data entry of surveys, and other various operational tasks. Completing these tasks properly ensures that CSR is able to contact everyone we want to, provide them with questions important to them and our research, and ensure that their views and opinions get properly recorded and heard by those in positions of power. This provides a public service that then allows many people to indirectly speak to those that have the ability to improve their lives by providing more government services, improving public parks, evaluating economic incentives, creating a more inclusive community, etc. Knowing that I am able to provide this public service leaves me feeling professionally fulfilled and personally satisfied since my work is aimed at improving the lives of people in Virginia and across the country.