Larry Hembroff, Ph.D.

Larry Hembroff, Ph.D.

Research Specialist

Dr. Hembroff (Ph.D., Sociology, Washington State University, 1978) is a Senior Research Specialist Emeritus at Michigan State University and a past-president of the national Association of Academic Survey Research Organizations.  He was the founding Director and Senior Survey Methodologist of the Office for Survey Research within MSU’s Institute for Public Policy and Social Research from 1989 until 2014. He developed OSR to support the rigorous survey data needs of the University, the faculty, the State, other units of government, and non-profit organizations.  Under his leadership, OSR grew into one of the premier academic survey research organizations in Michigan.

Dr. Hembroff has authored or co-authored research articles on a wide variety of topics in the Journal of American College Health, the American Journal of Sociology, Social Forces, Social Psychology Quarterly, Public Opinion Quarterly, the New England Journal of Medicine, the Journal of the American Medical Association, and others. He has written more than 200 research reports on the findings of many surveys for client organizations around the State of Michigan.  He has directed or participated in over 300 survey research projects, including behavioral risk factor surveys for Michigan and individual counties, the (MI) State of the State Surveys, community needs assessments, land use surveys, focus groups, business barometers, and many program evaluation surveys.

He has been intimately involved in the efforts to reduce high risk drinking at MSU since 2000.  As the Director of Research and Evaluation for the National Social Norms Center (NSNC), Dr. Hembroff was responsible for the development of NSNC’s methods, procedures, and sampling for survey data collection at partnering universities. He developed the analysis tools and summary table templates for providing results of the surveys. And collaborated with other members of the project team and grantees to use survey findings to enhance intervention effectiveness.