Team

As EVP of Digital Research, Jane maintains primary responsibility for the day-to-day operation of the company. Her responsibilities are great and so are her capabilities. She assures that business is coming in the door and that projects are completed to Digital’s high quality standards and to the satisfaction of our customers. Jane spearheads business development and new product development efforts. She establishes and maintains our standards of service delivery, and manages our core business through the efforts of the senior research staff members who report to her. Jane also maintains her own extensive roster of client projects, providing both quantitative and qualitative research services. She is experienced in a wide range of industries, including consumer packaged goods, consumer publications, technology and retail.

Jane has been involved in strategic planning and marketing research for more than 20 years, with extensive experience in sales research, advertising research and new product development. Prior to joining DRI, she served as Director of Market Research for Hannaford Bros. Company, as Research Officer for the Global Marketing Board at Phillips Lighting, and as a Research Director for Nabisco/Life Savers. Jane holds an MBA from Seton Hall University, a B.S from Lehigh University and a certificate from the AMA School of Marketing Research at Notre Dame University. She has been an active member of the Marketing Research Association (MRA), serving on the professional certification review committee. She maintains her MRA Professional Researcher Certification at the Expert level. She is a member of the AMA and the National Association of Female Executives.

For the past few years, Jane has devoted much of her time to the Morrison Developmental Center, one of the oldest Maine schools for children and adults with special needs. She currently serves as Vice President of the Morrison Board of Directors. Travel is Jane’s preferred avocation and she tells us that she is determined to visit all 50 states. We, in turn, encourage this travel… especially if there are clients to visit along the way. Jane enjoys bicycling and skiing, and you may hear her on weekends singing back-up in a local band. She and her husband live in Scarborough, ME, along with two adorable daughters, an elderly cat named Q-tip and two guinea pigs.

Michelle is the heart of DRI’s financial and human resources operations and one of the company’s longest term employees. Her job is very large and she is up to the task. Her extensive history with Digital Research and understanding of its inner workings are great assets to her success. She manages many facets of the company’s business operations, assuring finances are in order; support services including field services, data entry and information technology are meeting workload demands; staffing levels are adequate; and that DRI stakeholder needs are met.

Michelle completed her undergraduate studies in Marketing Management at the University of Northern Colorado.

Given where she went to college, it is not surprising that Michelle is a downhill skiing enthusiast. She is also an avid beachgoer and loves to travel and entertain. Michelle and her husband, Dave, and her daughter Gillian make their home in Kennebunk with their cat, Lance.

Marcia is a high powered researcher who dedicates the bulk of her expertise at DRI in the pharmaceutical and travel and tourism sectors. Her expertise covers all phases of the research process, including study design, project implementation/management, data analysis, reporting and presenting. Her major endeavor at DRI is the MedEDTracker program, a speaker performance tracking system used by pharmaceutical clients. She also manages economic impact studies in the travel and tourism sector.

Prior to joining DRI, she was a Senior Account Executive at Market Facts (now Synovate) where she handled all facets of research studies, from inception to reporting. Her first professional research position was at ACNeilsen BASES, where she served in a number of capacities, including Research Analyst, Senior Research Analyst and Project Director. Her area of concentration was consumer packaged goods research, where she regularly forecasted sales potential for new and existing products for U.S. and European markets.

Marcia holds a Bachelor of Science from Rutgers University School of Business. She maintains Professional Research Certification at the Expert Level.

Marcia’s plate is full, both at home and at work. Residing in Scarborough, she is married with two children and has a cat named “Bunny.” Prior to having children, her hobbies included horseback riding, visiting national parks and hiking. She hopes to revisit and share these hobbies with her children once they grow a little older. For now, when she has a rare, spare minute, she likes to read or walk.

In his role as a research director, Christopher is responsible for designing and conducting custom market research projects for a variety of clients at DRI. In fact, it’s this desire for variety that brought Chris from the vendor side back to the supplier side of marketing research. Much to our benefit!

Christopher’s eleven years of market research experience have focused on customer satisfaction, product development, and branding issues. He is also an experienced conference speaker and has been widely quoted in media outlets including, The NBC Nightly News, NPR, CBC, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Boston Globe.

Prior to joining DRI, Christopher was the Market Research Manager at L.L.Bean as well as the Research Director at Forrester Research, responsible for quantitative data collection in North America and the Asia/Pacific regions.

Christopher has a B.A. from Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts, where he graduated Magna Cum Laude. Christopher also earned an M.A. in Sociology from the University of Virginia. He lives in Scarborough with his wife and dog.  However, Chris loves to escape south to The ‘Vinyahd’ whenever he can.

Karen is one of the leading and perhaps most prolific researchers in the travel and tourism industry. With more than 1,500 research studies under her belt and more than 30 years of industry experience, she is a precious resource to the DRI family. Karen co-founded the DRI subsidiary Davidson-Peterson Associatesin 1974. She is perhaps best known for her role in development of the Davidson-Peterson method for determining the economic impact of tourism. She has designed and executed countless accountability studies, advertising effectiveness studies and focus groups.

Karen has served on the board of directors for the International Travel and Tourism Research Association, its New York and New England Chapters and CASRO (Council of American Survey Research Organizations) and is also a member of the Southeast Tourism Society. Additionally, she has appeared at many speaking engagements at both heritage and tourism conferences throughout the United States and served as a delegate from Maine to the White House Conference on Travel and Tourism. Closer to home, she serves as Secretary of the Board of Old York Historical Society and is a board member of Fair Tide, an organization providing transitional housing and support services to homeless and battered families with the mission of moving them towards self-sufficiency. Karen holds a BA from Wellesley College and has completed graduate work in business at City University of New York.

When not involved in business and civic endeavors, Karen loves to read and shares this enthusiasm with members in two book clubs. Bridge is another passion. When she’s not working on travel and tourism studies or speaking about them, she loves to travel for pleasure. Karen also has a secret wish to make it onto Jeopardy, since she was passed over on a past attempt.

She and her very spoiled cats, Scooter and Tommy Lea, make their home in Kittery.

Stephanie is DRI’s behavioral psychologist guru. She applies her skills in a variety of custom research projects that require in-depth analysis of a target population’s motivations and behaviors. Her responsibilities include research design, sampling strategy, survey instrument design, client communications, data analysis, interpretation and report writing. Her clients are in both the government and private sectors in a range of areas including consumer package goods, service industries and media.

Stephanie’s course of studies and work history is extensive, and rooted in the academic and medical sectors. Prior to joining DRI, she was a Visiting Assistant Professor at Bowdoin College’s Psychology Department, where she taught Cognitive Psychology, Introduction to Psychology, Research Design and led an experiential Cognitive Laboratory Course. She held a variety of positions at Boston College’s Psychology Department, including Teaching Assistant and Teaching Fellow during which she taught the first Cognitive Neuroscience course offered at the college. Earlier in her career, she served in various Research Assistant capacities at Boston College and Cambridge Basic Research where she studied human spatial navigation, including visual object recognition of faces, objects, and landmarks used for the purpose of navigating. At the outset of her academic career, she worked as a Research Assistant at the Laboratory of Higher Cortical Functions, Behavioral Neurology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and then as a Senior Research Assistant at Harvard Medical School, Laboratory of Neuroscience. In both of these positions she used MRI technology to measure the volume of brain structures in Schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s patients, comparing these with control subjects. While learning new MRI technologies, such as functional imaging in which cognitive processes of the brain are imaged, she managed and trained research assistants and visiting fellows.

Stephanie holds a PhD in Cognition & Perception from Boston College and an undergraduate BA in Psychology from St. Michael’s College. She earned a Certificate on the Principles of Market Research from the University of Georgia and maintains a Professional Research Certification at the Practitioner Level as well as a Certificate in Marketing Research with the American Marketing Association.

When she has spare time, Stephanie enjoys cooking, photography and continuing her study of the brain/neuropsychology. Stephanie, her husband and her seven pound Maltese dog, Rocco, enjoy Maine city life in downtown Portland.

Kristine has graced the Digital Research family for more than ten years and in that time has contributed significantly to the company’s body of research in a broad array of industries. Kristine manages projects for customers in retail, travel and tourism, food manufacturing, and in the private and public sectors. She is adept at conducting research in advertising and website effectiveness, feasibility studies, consumer goods packaging design, product concept testing, and tourism studies, among others.

Kristine shepherds projects from their inception to their conclusion, including questionnaire design, sampling plan design, field methodology, management of project staff, data analysis and report writing. She is an expert no matter the approach – qualitative or quantitative – and no matter the modality – online, phone, mail, in-person or multi-modal. She is experienced in running multi-wave studies.

A native of Maine, Kristine completed her undergraduate studies at Syracuse University, earning a BA in Political Philosophy and Sociology. She is a member of the Marketing Research Association and maintains a Practitioner level Professional Research Certification.

Kevin has recently joined DRI as a Senior Research Associate, leading primary marketing research studies for the Travel & Tourism industry. His strong background in mathematics makes him ideally suited to also lead our advanced analytics activities. Prior to joining DRI, Kevin was a Staff Economist for Economic Consulting Services as well as a consultant for Booz-Allen & Hamilton.

Kevin has a M.A. in Economics from the University of New Hampshire and a B.A. Math and Economics from Lafayette College.

In a prior life, Kevin was also a math teacher. Not wanting to stay too far away from the world of education, his is now an elected member of Kennebunk’s Regional School Unit Board of Directors. Kevin likes to spend time with his family enjoying the many outdoor activities plentiful in Maine, such as golfing, skiing, hiking and camping.

Katie is a recent addition to the Digital Research family. She has quickly taken on and mastered the myriad of duties that come with running large, national, online communities and panels in a number of different industries. On a daily basis, she provides support to our clients’ proprietary communities, assuring that all is well, that surveys are fielding to specifications and that completed surveys are coming in. She is also involved in report writing and analysis on a myriad of topics.

Prior to DRI, Katie worked as a Program Manager for Forrester Research where she handled client relationships with staff at Fortune 500 companies — including Colgate-Palmolive, Cardinal Health, Wells Fargo, Staples and Comcast. Her role involved working with clients to help them define their research needs and then coordinate and monitor the delivery of these consulting services.

Katie is a graduate from Gettysburg College with a BA in Business Management.

A native of Massachusetts, she returned recently to Maine, where her family has owned a summer home for six generations. Her free time is filled with many outdoor activities, including soccer, running and skiing. She also loves to cook and dabbles in jewelry making. Another special talent of hers is clam shucking — she placed 2nd in the 2007 Yarmouth Clam Festival Shucking Contest. This is no small feat at a festival attended by more than 100,000 visitors in given year.

Diana’s role of project support spans a number of duties, from the inception of a project to its conclusion. She executes sampling plans, tests the functionality of online surveys, prepares documents for final analysis, helps compile final reports, and whatever else it takes to get the job done. Digital Research is glad to have such a hard-working, high attention to detail professional.

Graduating from Bryant University in 2007 with a BS in Business Administration with a concentration in Marketing, Diana’s first professional stint was as a Marketing Assistant at Ron Beaulieu & Company, an accounting firm, where she again performed a broad range of duties, including proposal writing, print advertisement design and administrative functions.

Dust doesn’t settle under Diana’s feet. When not working, she’s likely busy with one of her many sports interests. Depending on the season, she may be watching the Red Sox, shredding the mountains on her snowboard, playing in a co-ed soccer league, hiking or whatever other physical activity tweaks her interest. She loves living in Portland, Maine, as well as spending time with friends and family.

Katherine joins DRI as a Research Assistant. Her role includes managing the day to day operations of our MedEd Tracker pharmaceutical program, including working closely with pharmaceutical sale representatives, tracking and reconciling survey data, and generating various reports.

Katherine holds a Bachelor of Science from University of Southern Maine School of Business and will complete her MBA from USM in the spring of 2009. Prior to her position at DRI, she was a merchandising assistant/intern for Hannaford Brothers Company, a manager for BEBE, Inc., and an HR Manager for Skinmarket, Inc.

Recently engaged, Katherine and her fiancé reside in Portland where she enjoys taking walks along the eastern promenade with her dog, Moe, practicing yoga, hiking and exploring quaint towns along the coast of Maine.

Tracey is a Research Assistant at Digital Research. Previously working as a social worker, Tracey decided to broaden her professional experiences and enter the realm of marketing research.

Tracey supports multiple client projects at DRI, from their inception to conclusion. A key resource for our Med Ed Tracker Pharmaceutical Research Program, she engages in all of the many ‘moving parts’ of the program, from creating mailings to creating quarterly and annual reports for our participating Pharma Industry Clients.

Tracey has a B.A. in Sociology from the University of Massachusetts – Amherst. Prior to joining DRI, Tracey was a caseworker for Youth Alternatives in Kennebunk.

In her spare time Tracey enjoys being a newlywed-spending time with her husband and pug, Gizmo. Being outdoors, especially at the beach, is where she finds peace. Tracey is an avid Red Sox, Patriots and Celtics fan. In the summer Tracey participates in a softball league. Tracey resides in Kennebunk.

Tanya works on the front lines of Digital Research’s operations and is tenacious at assuring that scheduled work is done to perfection and on-time, no matter the industry or continent. She works with a variety of vendors and staff for online panel research, mailings, phone interviews and focus groups. Projects include both domestic and international studies, spanning travel and tourism, general consumer and medical sectors.

Prior to joining DRI she worked in project management at focus group facilities in the Boston and Los Angeles markets. She holds a Bachelors of Science from Northeastern University.

Tanya lives a full life outside the office. She and her husband of six years enjoy their two small boys and their interesting pets, including two large dogs, one furry cat, two goldfish…and a zebra!

Jonathan’s extensive experience in web applications ensures that Digital online services work like a well-honed machine. Since his tenure at the company, he has merged Web 2.0 capabilities with online research panel technology. Ever the innovator, he has developed methods enabling recruitment of potential panelists from client websites while minimizing the impact on their browsing experience.

He has over a decade of experience as a web applications developer and consultant. He has spearheaded a major game-server code refactoring project as a Lead Programmer for the MORPG Shadows of llsidur. As Chief of Desktop Development for Stand Alone, a former market leader in the handheld industry, he developed client/service database applications. Jonathan holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, with a minor in Sociology, from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Jonathan’s creativity in the digital world extends to realms beyond research; he is an experimental artist and music critic who has worked as a nightclub and radio DJ and concert promoter in the electronic music industry. He’s a sci-fi movies enthusiast, yoga practitioner and student of Egyptology and Philosophy.

Gary is a quiet force at Digital Research. Always with a calm demeanor, he handles tidal waves of data that pour in from every research direction — online, phone, mail and in-person. His precision and turnaround times are legendary, enabling substantial volumes of research to be executed at any given time, with a high level of quality. Gary works on database management and programming for all tourism and economic impact studies. He is also responsible for statistical analytical functions for a wide array of studies, spanning many industries, including hotel, pharmaceutical, retail, publishing and whatever else comes in the door. He is an expert in SPSS and Wincross applications.

Prior to joining DRI, Gary worked in a number of firms in various programmer capacities, including Computers Source, Inc.; Triangle Publications, Inc., publishers of TV Guide; Roy F. Weston, Inc.; and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He holds an Associates degree from ICM School of Business in Pittsburgh.

When he’s not crunching numbers, Gary is a voracious reader, especially of books by J.R.R. Tolkien. He also likes to hike, his favorite spot being Acadia National Park. He and his wife reside in Biddeford.

Shari’s last name includes a key characteristic about her, she is a “star” at Digital Research. Her can-do attitude brings magic to the organization. Her responsibilities cover a broad range of areas that are essential to assuring that the company’s online and other services are running smoothly. Panel administrator duties require heavy lifting. Shari is responsible for all panelist email communications, SQL and Access database sampling and contact updates, panel website design, development and maintenance. She also provides regular analysis and reporting on all of the client panels that we manage.

Additionally, she provides help desk support to staff on software applications, web based-services, and computer hardware. Shari also oversees our scanning technologies.

Shari’s technical training is extensive and is ongoing, to keep pace with the fast changing digital world. She has training and expertise for Microsoft Access, Windows XP & Vista and a variety of other software packages. She is skilled in HTML/XHTML, CSS, all Microsoft Office 2003-2007 programs, FTP, SQL databases, Adobe programs including Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Photoshop, Illustrator, and more!

Outside of work, Shari’s personal interests are as eclectic as her job description. You may find her reading a book, most likely about history. Or, she may be gardening although she feels her efforts are unsuccessful. She loves to collect things, old or vintage, trash talk about football, bake, play video games and confesses to being a gadget junkie.

She and her better half, Jim, live with their “cat-who-thinks-he’s-a-dog” named Jic-Jac.

Donna is a very busy and adept member of the Information Technology team. She handles database management, programming and data analysis for a broad range of studies that pass through Digital Research, including public sector and private sector projects and specializes in wave data. She’s willing to take on whatever comes her way and is an expert in Excel, Access and Wincross applications.

Donna has completed undergraduate studies in early childhood development in Waterbury, Connecticut. Prior to joining DRI, Donna worked various duties, including computer operator, programmer and data analyst at both Dutch Point Credit Union and Sweetser. She has also completed certificates in several computer applications.

On the home front, Donna has many passions, from scrapbooking, swimming, and getting together with the neighbors. Her particular pastime is ATV riding, boasting membership to several ATV associations. Donna and her family enjoy taking their ATV’s to the hinterlands of Maine to enjoy great outdoor adventures.

Her husband of more than 20 years, Kevin, and children, Alyssa and Billy, live in Saco, with their dog, Jake; cat, Lucky; and one fish.

Lanna is a recent addition to the Digital Research family and in a brief time is making her mark. She handles a variety of programmer tasks entailed in managing online proprietary research panels, as well as executing the processes of downloading, cleaning and analyzing data from all varieties of research projects, whether done online, by phone, on paper or in-person. She works in SPSS and Wincross.

Before coming to DRI, Lanna has led a very interesting and eclectic life. A native of the Moosehead Lake Region in Maine, her professional endeavors have taken her to Bangor, Portland, Boston and New York City. Her work history is varied, with experience in both the private and public sectors, from working as an Executive Administrative Assistant, Call Center Supervisor and Trainer, to clown. She is pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology with a minor in Mathematics at the University of Southern Maine and is a member of Alpha Kappa Delta, the International Sociology Society.

Lanna and her husband Edmund have made their home in Westbrook with their cat, Hunter “Socks” Thompson-Quinn, who happens to have his own website, http://huntersocksthompson.com.

Lisa is the personification of our DRI commitment to customer service that begins with a real person who will answer your telephone call. You couldn’t ask for a nicer person to talk to. Her calm and soothing personality is a wonderful balance to this very busy, market research firm. Yet don’t think for a moment that Lisa is just sitting back while the rest of us run around. She’s the queen of multitasking and organization. In addition to routing phone traffic, Lisa makes sure the supply closet is full of all things that “make us tick.” She also manages sweepstakes letters for recipients of online survey incentives, logs in a continuous stream of paper surveys, and provides data entry services for internal accounting and client projects.

Lisa earned her B.A. in Business Management from Johnson State College. She is also a graduate of The Landing School of Boatbuilding in Arundel, Maine. Lisa lives in Biddeford with her husband, two dogs, a cat and a goldfish. She is a certified yoga practitioner, and tries to get the rest of us to exercise.