As Politico reported Tuesday, former Nebraska senator Chuck Hagel was paid $120,000 in 2012 to work as a "senior adviser" to Gallup, the Omaha-based polling and research firm. Gallup won't explain what services or expertise Hagel actually provided.
Lauren Kannry, a spokeswoman for Gallup commented in an email to THE WEEKLY STANDARD that Hagel was paid as "one of more than 20 outside senior advisors and senior scientists that provide Gallup with expertise on a wide variety of subjects ranging from global workplace research to healthcare to advanced analytics of global wellbeing." Asked to be more specific on what expertise Hagel provided, Kannry replied that "what I sent you...is all the information I have."
According to Gallup's website, the firm currently employs 16 of these senior scientists and advisers, most of whom have doctoral degrees. Here's the up-to-date list:
Lisa Berkman, Ph.D., an expert on social influences on health and aging and on social inequalities in health Larry A. Braskamp, Ph.D., authority on creating campus-wide strengths-based initiatives designed to develop the whole student Vinton G. Cerf, Ph.D., widely known as an Internet evangelist and principal collaborator in the development of the Internet Deepak Chopra, M.D., leading authority on "connectedness" and how one-to-one relationships affect peace throughout the world Nicholas A. Christakis, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H., social scientist and physician who conducts research on social factors that affect health, healthcare, and longevity Angus Deaton, Ph.D., internationally known researcher on health, economic development, household behavior, and the measurement of poverty in India and around the world Ed Diener, Ph.D., leading expert on the theories and measurement of wellbeing Don A. Dillman, Ph.D., principal authority on survey research data collection methodologies Jay Freeman, a leading expert on financial services and retail banking Daniel Kahneman, Ph.D., winner of the Nobel Prize in economics Shane J. Lopez, Ph.D., a leading scholar on hope, an expert on strengths-based education, and an architect of the Gallup Student Poll Allan L. McCutcheon, Ph.D., internationally recognized expert on survey research methods and sophisticated data analysis Frank L. Schmidt, Ph.D., highly acclaimed researcher and author in the fields of personnel selection and meta-analysis Arthur A. Stone, Ph.D., leading researcher in the advancement of behavioral medicine Lisa Strausfeld, an expert on data visualization and distilling complex information sources into visually compelling, actionable user interfaces Justin Wolfers, Ph.D., an expert on labor economics, macroeconomics, law and economics, social policy, and behavioral economics
It remains unclear what Hagel, a two-term senator and businessman with a bachelor's degree, provided for his compensation.
Hagel has been nominated as secretary of defense by President Barack Obama.