The American Association of Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) last night recognized KFF’s Mollyann Brodie, Ph.D., with the AAPOR Award for Distinguished Achievement for her outstanding leadership and contributions to the field of public opinion research over three decades.
The award honors Dr. Brodie, a KFF executive vice president and executive director of KFF’s Public Opinion and Survey Research, for leading KFF’s polling team as it has built a body of work “that has become the nation’s definitive source for public opinion on health — earning the confidence of policymakers, journalists, and the public alike.”
The association notes Dr. Brodie’s role in developing the KFF Health Tracking Poll, which has documented the arc of the public’s opinions on and experiences with the Affordable Care Act and provided a record of how sweeping legislation affects ordinary Americans, and the KFF COVID-19 Vaccine Monitor, which became a critical resource for understanding the public’s views, access, uptake, and concerns about emerging vaccines. “In each case, her vision produced research that went beyond poll numbers to tell the broader story of how Americans experienced major changes in health and health care,” AAPOR noted in its award citation.
AAPOR also praised Dr. Brodie’s commitment to inclusion for women and other underrepresented groups, both in her work at KFF and as a leader within the association. The association notes her role in developing methodologically innovative surveys of working-class Americans, transgender adults, Hurricane Katrina evacuees, and rural communities — populations whose voices too rarely get elevated in other nationally representative polls.
In addition, KFF’s Surveys of Immigrants received the 2026 AAPOR Inclusive Voices Award, which recognizes work examining complex challenges related to underrepresented populations.
The multi-year initiative, including surveys conducted in partnership with The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times, is the only large-scale, nationally representative probability-based survey of immigrants in the United States in decades. Through innovative multi-frame, multilingual, and multi-mode methods, the surveys succeeded in amplifying the voices of groups often excluded from survey research, such as undocumented immigrants and those with limited English proficiency.
“We started our polling program when we started KFF in the early 1990s, but it made the jump to light speed after Molly arrived. These awards recognize her expertise and vision, and how effective we’ve been in coordinating our polling under Molly’s leadership with our equally tremendous capacity in policy research and journalism,” said Dr. Drew Altman, Founding President and CEO, KFF.
At KFF, Dr. Brodie works closely with Senior Vice President and Director of Public Opinion and Survey Research Liz Hamel, Director of Survey Methodology Dr. Ashley Kirzinger, and Dr. Altman, in addition to the policy research team led by Executive Vice President Larry Levitt, and journalists at KFF Health News. She also helped develop KFF’s polling partnerships with major news organizations, including The New York Times and The Washington Post. Dr. Brodie and Mr. Levitt are the executive team who work with Dr. Altman to oversee all of KFF’s program directions, finances, and operations.
The awards were presented last night at AAPOR’s 81st annual conference in Los Angeles.
