Professor Thomas W. Pullum

Dr Thomas Pullum is a demographer whose career has combined academic and non-academic affiliations. A lengthy academic career included faculty positions at the University of the Philippines, the Harvard School of Public Health, the University of Washington, and the University of Texas at Austin.

His non-academic career included positions with the World Fertility Survey, USAID, and The Demographic and Health Surveys Program (DHS), where he was Director of Research from 2011 to 2022.

Most of his work can be classified within the fields of population dynamics, family building, or statistical demography. A major activity is linking traditional demographic methods with statistical methods that are appropriate for survey data. At DHS, he integrated the calculation of all demographic rates into a unified model and developed a range of tools to assess most aspects of data quality.

Additional interests are identifying risk factors for vulnerable children and measuring the effective coverage of interventions to improve reproductive health and maternal and child health.