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The U.S. Census Bureau announced today the establishment of the National Advisory Committee on Racial, Ethnic and Other Populations and has named Charlotte Patterson as a member of the committee.

The National Advisory Committee will advise the Census Bureau on a wide range of variables that affect the cost, accuracy and implementation of the Census Bureau's programs and surveys, including the once-a-decade census. The committee, which is comprised of 32 members from multiple disciplines, will advise the Census Bureau on topics such as housing, children, youth, poverty, privacy, race and ethnicity, as well as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and other populations.

“We expect that the expertise of this committee will help us meet emerging challenges the Census Bureau faces in producing statistics about our diverse nation,” said Thomas Mesenbourg, the Census Bureau's acting director. “By helping us better understand a variety of issues that affect statistical measurement, this committee will help ensure that the Census Bureau continues to provide relevant and timely statistics used by federal, state and local governments as well as business and industry in an increasingly technologically oriented society.”

The National Advisory Committee members, who serve at the discretion of the Census Bureau director, are chosen to serve based on expertise and knowledge of the cultural patterns, issues and/or statistical needs of hard-to-count populations.

Charlotte Patterson is a professor of psychology and director of the interdisciplinary program called Women, Gender and Sexuality at the University of Virginia, where much of her recent work has focused on sexual orientation, human development and family lives. Best known for her research on child development in lesbian- and gay-parented families, Patterson is a fellow of the Association for Psychological Science and the American Psychological Association, and is a past-president of the Society for Psychological Research on Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Issues. She recently served as a member of the interdisciplinary Committee on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Health Issues and Research Gaps convened by the U.S. Institute of Medicine.