Stephanie Eckman

Stephanie Eckman

Principal Research Scientist

Amazon

I’m a Principal Research Scientist at Amazon with a Ph.D. in Statistics & Methodology from UMD. My research bridges survey methodology and machine learning, focusing on how data collection methods impact AI model performance and fairness. I’ve published at top ML venues including ICML and EMNLP, introducing the concept of “annotation sensitivity” and advocating for better training data practices in the AI community.

AI Research

Improving Training Data Quality

I bring survey science to AI - helping build better models through better data.

Survey Research

Improving Data Quality in Surveys

My survey methodology work focuses on understanding and reducing measurement error, nonresponse bias, and other sources of error in surveys.

Experience

 
 
 
 
 
Principal Research Scientist
Amazon
February 2023 – Present Arlington, VA
 
 
 
 
 
Researcher and Data Scientist
February 2023 – Present College Park, MD
 
 
 
 
 
Fellow
RTI International
August 2015 – December 2022 Washington, DC
  • Conducting and publishing research into data quality
  • Mentoring junior researchers
  • Providing scientific leadership to the institute
 
 
 
 
 
Senior Researcher
Institute for Employment Research
July 2010 – July 2015 Nuremberg, Germany
  • Conducting and publishing research
  • Advising on design of IAB surveys
 
 
 
 
 
Chair of Sociology (Interim)
University of Mannheim
January 2013 – January 2014 Mannheim, Germany
  • Conducting and publishing research
  • Teaching courses in data analysis & research methods
  • Mentoring students
 
 
 
 
 
Methodologist
NORC at the University of Chicago
April 2001 – January 2010 Chicago, IL

Publications

Recent work in AI and survey methodology

(2025). Aligning NLP Models with Target Population Perspectives using PAIR: Population-Aligned Instance Replication. NLPerspectives.

PDF Project

(2024). Position: Insights from Survey Methodology can Improve Training Data. ICML.

PDF Project DOI

(2024). Order Effects in Annotation Tasks: Further Evidence of Annotation Sensitivity. UncertaiNLP.

PDF Project

(2022). Non-participation in smartphone data collection using research apps. JRSSA.

PDF DOI

(2022). The Precision of Estimates of Nonresponse Bias in Means. JSSAM.

DOI

(2021). Comparing Estimates of News Consumption from Survey and Passively Collected Behavioral Data. POQ.

PDF Project DOI

Skills

Writing & Presenting
Statistics & Data Science
Data Collection

Contact

  • steph@umd.edu