MIDDLETOWN, Pa. — Jennifer Shultz, director of the Pennsylvania State Data Center within Penn State Harrisburg’s Institute of State and Regional Affairs, has been honored with the Gustafson Award in recognition of her contributions to the State Data Center program.

Census State Data Centers are statistical agencies, state demographers and data-providing organizations from 56 states and U.S. territories that partner with the U.S. Census Bureau to provide expert analysis, training and extension of Census data. The Gustafson Award, established in 2012 to memorialize a State Data Center program colleague, Randy Gustafson, is given annually to honor an individual or individuals in the State Data Center network for outstanding contributions to the State Data Center program.

Shultz has been a longtime contributor to the State Data Center program, a federal-state cooperative program, representing Pennsylvania on a federal level to improve programs and data quality. She has been an active member of the State Data Center steering committee for the past eight years, serving as secretary for seven years.

“I am honored to have known Randy Gustafson, who contributed so much to the State Data Center program and shared his knowledge and enthusiasm with me,” Shultz said. “I want to thank my colleagues at the Pennsylvania State Data Center for their support of my work in the program and on the Steering Committee.” 

Shultz joined the Pennsylvania State Data Center in 1992 and became director in 2022. She oversees collection, analysis, and interpretation of data related to research projects and data user requests. Following the 2020 census, she led the center’s data collection and analysis for Pennsylvania’s redistricting efforts.

In her previous roles at the center, Shultz focused on both data services and sponsored projects and contributed to a variety of services including programming, mapping, data management, and visualization development, as well as presentation on Census Bureau programs and Pennsylvania trends.