Survey Research and Services

Biography

Paul Biemer, PhD, Distinguished Fellow in statistics, appointed November 2002, has 29 years of postdoctoral experience in survey methods and statistics. He joined RTI in 1991, serving as director of the survey methods program until 1994 and of the Center for Survey Methods and Research from 1994 to 2000. Dr. Biemer's scientific contributions to survey methodology and statistics include developing methodologies for using computer audio-recorded interviewing, using latent class analysis as a survey error evaluation tool, and applying continuous quality improvement to the coding of industry and occupation question responses. He holds a joint appointment with the Odum Institute for Research in Social Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he is associate director for survey research and director of the certificate program in survey methodology. He has written five books, 35 peer-reviewed publications, 17 book chapters, and numerous papers and presentations. Read More…

Biography
Robert M. Bray, Ph.D., is a senior research psychologist and director of the Substance Abuse Epidemiology and Military Behavioral Health Program. His research interests focus on the epidemiology of substance use and other health behaviors in military and civilian populations with an emphasis on understanding the prevalence, causes, correlates, and consequences of these behaviors. He has directed eight comprehensive worldwide Department of Defense surveys of military personnel that comprise the most widely cited data on substance use and health behaviors in the military and two longitudinal studies assessing risk and protective factors for initiation of tobacco and alcohol use among junior enlisted sailors, soldiers, and airmen. Dr. Bray is principal editor of Drug Use in Metropolitan America, which integrates findings from a large-scale study of drug use among diverse populations in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. He has published and presented widely in the area of substance use and health-related behaviors. Read More…

Biography
Rachel A. Caspar, a senior survey methodologist, joined RTI in 1988. She specializes in designing questionnaires and developing data collection procedures for surveys of sensitive topics. She also adapts complex material and concepts to be easily and consistently understood by survey participants of all ages, educational levels, and cultural backgrounds. Ms. Caspar’s methodological research is broad based, focusing on survey methods for capturing data on sensitive topics, methods for reducing item and unit nonresponse, questionnaire evaluation and testing, and designing and implementing computer-assisted survey data collection. She is proficient in all facets of cognitive laboratory and usability testing. Ms. Caspar regularly teaches courses on questionnaire design and cognitive laboratory testing methods. Read More…

Biography

James Chromy, PhD, Senior Fellow in statistics, appointed August 2004, has over 40 years of experience in sampling theory and application, survey design, and statistical analysis. At RTI, he has led many large-scale surveys; he helped design the sample and data collection methodology for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) first conducted by RTI in 1969 and currently serves on the NAEP Validity Studies Panel. He has experience in all aspects of area probability sampling and household interview surveys and currently serves as operational director for statistics for the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Dr. Chromy developed the theory and computational algorithm for selecting minimum replacement probability proportional to size samples, and he developed a computer algorithm for efficient sample allocation that minimizes total survey cost subject to satisfying multiple variance constraints. He is an adjunct professor of statistics at North Carolina State University and an associate editor for the Journal of Official Statistics. Read More…

Biography
Sheri Fehnel, PhD, is Global Head of Patient-Reported Outcomes in RTI Health Solutions. She specializes in the development and evaluation of questionnaires designed to measure health-related quality of life, patient satisfaction, resource utilization, and other patient-reported outcomes. Dr. Fehnel has moderated countless focus groups, conducted cognitive interviews patient and professional populations, and assessed potential sources of measurement error through cognitive forms appraisal. She has evaluated the psychometric properties of survey and clinical instruments using factor analysis, structural equations modeling, and item response theory. Read More…

Biography
Craig A. Hill, PhD, is vice president of RTI International’s Survey Research Division and has more than 20 years of experience in survey research. During that time, he has concentrated almost exclusively on studies with a health care focus. He has directed health services research projects for a wide variety of federal, academic, and commercial clients using field, telephone, and mail designs. Dr. Hill’s research considers the survey methodology of studies of physician respondents and the deterrence, detection, and remediation of interviewer fraud and falsification. He now directs programs in survey operations and survey methods research, and he provides overall management of RTI’s survey data collection staff and resources. Read More…

Biography
Karol Krotki, PhD, is a senior research statistician who joined RTI in 2004. His areas of specialization include survey research, social science data analysis, international studies, and demography. He is known nationally for his work in survey sampling, random-digit-dial telephone sampling, weighting, and alternative methods of survey design such as Internet panels. Dr. Krotki has held a number of honorary positions such as president of the Washington Statistical Society (2007-2010) and in 2008 was elected Fellow of the American Statistical Association. He has a number of publications and presentations to his credit, has held a variety of teaching positions, and is fluent in four languages. Read More…

Biography
Heather Ringeisen, PhD, MS, BS, serves as a co-investigator on the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being II. She also serves as a senior research psychologist on NSCAW, the first national longitudinal study that examines child and family well-being and relates it to their experience with the child welfare system and community environment. Dr. Ringeisen is a children's mental health services researcher with a special interest in the non-specialty mental health service systems. Prior to her work at RTI, Dr. Ringeisen served as chief of the Child and Adolescent Services Research Program at NIMH, where she directed a research program that examined the quality, organization, and financing of services for children with mental disorders. Dr. Ringeisen has served on multiple federal committees established to coordinate activities related to children's mental health. She previously received the Society for Research in Child Development policy fellowship and is a licensed clinical child psychologist. Read More…

Biography
Ramasubramanian Suresh, Director of the Center for Survey Technology in the Research Computing Division, is an expert at systems for personal, telephone, and Web-based interviewing, including CAPI, ACASI, CATI, and Web-based studies. He has directed development of instruments, laptop applications, field data management components, centralized data capture, monitoring or control systems, data management, and file delivery. He was the chief architect of RTI's CATI Case Management System (CATI-CMS), pioneered the Computer Audio-Recorded Interview (CARI) technology, was one of the senior designers of RTI's Integrated Field Case Management System (IFMS), led the effort to develop RTI's Document Management (DocMan) system for field studies so that CAPI data collection could be effectively paperless, and played a lead role in transitioning the CATI and IFMS systems to be FIPS-moderate compliant using RTI's Enhanced Security Network (ESN). Currently, he is leading the development of RTI's Hatteras system, which is Web-based computer-assisted interviewing software. Read More…

Biography
Mike Weeks is a senior survey director at RTI. In his 35-year career in survey research, he has successfully managed numerous survey projects ranging from small local studies to large national surveys. He is widely recognized as an expert project manager, and has developed and taught seminars on the management of survey research projects to a variety of federal agencies and private organizations, including a 2-day short course that he teaches each year through the Joint Program in Survey Methodology at the University of Maryland. He has conducted experiments on a variety of methodological issues in survey research and has reported his findings in numerous professional papers and publications. He has served on the editorial board of Public Opinion Quarterly and on two national advisory panels. Read More…

Biography
Roy Whitmore, PhD, is a senior statistician who joined RTI in 1980. He is expert in design and analysis of complex sample surveys. His primary areas of application have been human exposure assessment surveys and postsecondary education studies. He recently was principal investigator for an EPA STAR grant that developed a data collection platform for human exposure-related behaviors, including time/activity/location/exertion-level data, dietary data, and data on use of consumer products. He was sampling task leader for such high-visibility EPA studies as the EPA Region 5 field test of the National Human Exposure Assessment Survey. He has served as task leader for sampling, weighting, imputation, and reporting for several postsecondary education surveys for the National Center for Education Statistics. He has published in the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology, Environmental Health Perspectives, Environmental Science and Technology, Atmospheric Environment, Journal of Official Statistics, and Journal of the American Statistical Association. Read More…