Cary Funk

Cary Funk is a senior researcher at the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life and Social & Demographic Trends project. She is a survey researcher with expertise in political and social attitudes, and is involved in all phases of survey projects including survey design, data analysis and report writing for both representative surveys and surveys of special groups. Funk began her career at CBS News in New York, where she worked on pre-election surveys and exit polls; in more recent years, she served as an election night analyst for NBC News. She was on the political science faculty at Rice University and at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) before joining the Pew Research Center. While an associate professor at VCU, she directed the VCU Life Sciences Surveys, national surveys focused on public attitudes about science and biotechnology. In addition, she directed statewide polls on politics and public policy issues and on K-12 education. She earned a doctorate and a master’s in social psychology from the University of California, Los Angeles. Funk has published numerous academic articles and book chapters in the fields of political science, public opinion and political behavior and is a co-author of The Rise of Asian Americans, Asian Americans: A Mosaic of Faiths, and “Nones” on the Rise.