Heidi Guyer

Heidi Guyer is an expert in survey research who has led data collection on multiple large, national, population-based health surveys. She has extensive experience in population-based data collection, cross-sectional and longitudinal health surveys, and adapting clinical measures and new technology in health research. Dr. Guyer has presented at conferences and workshops nationally and internationally on topics such as collecting physical measures and biomarkers in population-based studies, interviewer training techniques, and panel maintenance on longitudinal studies. Her research has focused on the association between health behaviors, such as sleep and diet quality, and the development of chronic health conditions.

Currently, Dr. Guyer serves as Project Director of the National Study of Mental Health, a large-scale, population-based study of adults residing in households, prisons, hospitals and homeless shelters across the United States. She also has senior roles on the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) and Add Health studies. As an instructor in the University of Michigan, Survey Research Center Summer Institute, she teaches on topics such as integrating responsive design strategies in survey research and data collection using wearables, apps and sensors.

Before joining RTI in 2019, Dr. Guyer was a Senior Survey Director at the University of Michigan Survey Research Center, where she oversaw data collection on large national and international health research projects. Prior to that, Dr. Guyer worked as a Research Associate at the Barcelona Health Department and in several hospital based clinical epidemiologic units, conducting health research and primary data collection in Spain for nearly 10 years.

Dr. Guyer is a member of the American Association of Public Opinion Research, the American Public Health Association, and the European Survey Research Association. She speaks English, Spanish, and Catalan. Some of her notable publications include The Collection of Biospecimens in Health Surveys, Best Practices for Panel Maintenance and Retention, and The effects of a mid-data collection change in financial incentives on total survey error in the National Survey of Family Growth.