The Population Division serves as demographic consultants to the City of New York, and is tasked with increasing census awareness, assessing the validity, reliability, and relevance of census results, and ultimately overseeing the city’s 2030 LUCA effort.

Joining the agency in 2005, Joel was at the forefront of New York City’s 2010 and 2020 complete count efforts, working to report hidden housing units and targeting hard-to-count communities in need of outreach. He has also worked to increase public awareness about the utility of census data and improve understanding of data limitations.

Joel works closely with city agencies and civic organizations to employ census data to address the needs of the city. He has used census data to examine the demographic impact of 9/11, to assess the characteristics of the populations affected by Hurricane Sandy, and to provide language assistance at New York City poll sites. He also helped facilitate broad access to curated census data through the development of sociodemographic applications like NYC Population FactFinder, NYC Population MapViewer, and the Equitable Development Data Explorer.

Joel has presented to the National Academy of Sciences, the Center for Disease Control, and national audiences on a host of topics, including the impact of new privacy procedures on the 2020 Census data’s fitness for use, the ethnic diversity of New York City’s Black community, and the use of census data in New York City’s pandemic response. He has also published on New York City’s immigrant settlement patterns, the pitfalls of mapping American Community Survey data, and guidance for state and local governments on the use of American Community Survey data. Joel received his M.A. in geography from Hunter College and his B.A. in anthropology from Binghamton University.