2012 SAPOR Officers
Mansour Fahimi
President
Marketing Systems Group
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With over 20 years of experience in survey and market research methods, Dr. Mansour Fahimi is the Vice President of Statistical Research Services at Marketing Systems Group. Mansour works on design and administration of complex surveys and has years of experience with postsurvey procedures, including nonresponse bias analysis, imputation of missing data, computation of survey weights, and estimation of sampling errors. Moreover, he works on data analysis tasks involving multivariate techniques, nonparametric methods, experimental designs, as well as designed-based procedures for analysis of data from complex surveys. As a leading researcher in address-based sampling and multi-mode methods of survey administration, Mansour has conducted several workshops and produced publications in this area. He has been responsible for development of algorithms for integration of surveys and controlled selection, multidimensional distribution matching, and model-based procedures for imputation of missing data. Relying on nonlinear optimization techniques, he has developed innovative methods for minimal sampling and using multivariate procedures he has devised techniques for segmentation applications. Using latent class analysis techniques he has developed regression-based procedures that are robust in the presence of heavy multicollinearity. As an adjutant professor Dr. Fahimi teaches courses in statistics.
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Michael Lawrence
Vice President/President-Elect
Knowledge Networks, Inc.
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Mike Lawrence is the Vice President for Research Development in the Government and Academic Research unit at Knowledge Networks. He’s a senior manager and survey statistician with more than 40 years of broad technical experience with an emphasis on management, program operations, and development for Government, Commercial and Academic clients. Mike joined Knowledge Networks in 2006 having come from RTI International. His surveys have spanned topics as varied as uranium mining to flu vaccination, with health care and related topics dominating his recent efforts. He has also taught survey methods courses at the George Washington University graduate school. His interests are in solving vexing survey problems related to sampling, measurement and evaluation. He received his BA in Sociology from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and his MA in Family and Child Sciences from Michigan State University. He has worked for large, medium and small firms and conducted everything from traditional to, at the time, very innovative research. In his current role, Mike’s responsible for designing and supervising the execution of dozens of simultaneous surveys on a wide variety of topics using KnowledgePanel®, custom survey panels, and other sample sources.
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Amber Rumsey
Conference Chair
RTI International
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Amber Rumsey is a Regional Supervisor at RTI International. She has experience in field operations including managing field staff, monitoring field observations, responding to field inquiries, preparing data quality reports, and assisting with staffing and client deliverables. Before joining RTI, Ms. Rumsey was a researcher for a national study on state retiree health care. She holds a BA in History and a Secondary Teaching License from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, and a Masters in Public Administration from North Carolina State University. She has been an active SAPOR member since 2008, serving as session chair in 2009 and as a conference planning volunteer in 2010 and as Conference Vice Chair in 2011. Ms. Rumsey is motivated toward growing the SAPOR conference and expanding its focus in the upcoming years.
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Stacey Weger
Secretary
RTI International
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Stacey Weger joined RTI in 2006 as a survey manager and has over ten years of experience in survey research and data collection practices. Stacey is well versed in questionnaire development, data collection monitoring, data processing, and quality control methods, with a particular emphasis on epidemiology and public health research. Familiar with multiple data collection modes, including field research, computer assisted interviewing (CAI), and mail surveys, she has worked as a data collection task leader and a supervisor, overseeing data collection activities and monitoring the progress of field and call center interviewers. She also has an extensive background in writing and editing, including study reports, training materials, and questionnaire specifications.
Stacey received her B.A. in Professional Writing from Western Carolina University and an M.A. in Sociology from North Carolina Central University. She resides in Raleigh, NC, and in her spare time serves as the arts editor for a local blog and volunteers with several film festivals.
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Adam Sage
Treasurer
RTI International
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Adam Sage joined RTI in 2008 and is a survey manager. His experience includes data collection management, survey design and methodology, and the utilization of new technologies and social media. Adam holds a B.A. and M.A. in Sociology from Kent State University, and is currently a student in UNC’s Certificate Program in Survey Methodology. Adam is the creator and managing editor of RTI’s SurveyPost, a blog with contributors that are experts in advances in social research. Adam has been an active member and volunteer for SAPOR and AAPOR since 2009.
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Gretchen McHenry
Conference Vice Chair
RTI International
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Gretchen McHenry joined RTI in 2008 as a survey specialist. She has experience in field operations and data collection, specifically managing field interviewers, monitoring field observations, developing field observation reports, and assisting with client deliverables. Gretchen holds a BS in Sociology from Appalachian State University and a Masters in Sociology from North Carolina State University. She has been an active SAPOR member since 2008, serving as a conference planning volunteer from 2008 to 2011. Gretchen would like to see SAPOR’s annual conference grow in attendees and scope of papers presented.
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Lauren Cohen
Immediate Past President
RTI International
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Lauren M. Cohen is a survey manager in RTI International's Survey Research Division and serves as the operations manager for the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), one of RTI's largest research projects. Ms. Cohen has experience in survey protocol development, field management, data quality, data consistency checks, survey material development, training field staff in the use of computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) and audio computer-assisted self-interviewing (ACASI) techniques, training telephone interviewers, creating project tracking systems, and writing project manuals and reports. She holds a BS in Psychology and BA in Sociology from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Ms. Cohen previously served as SAPOR's Vice President/President-Elect in 2010, Conference Chair in 2009, Conference Vice Chair in 2008, and was a member of the SAPOR Conference Committee from 2005-2007.
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Shane Trahan
Website and Communications Committee Chair
RTI International
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Shane has worked with web based systems for over 10 years and currently designs, maintains and develops data management systems for the National Survey of Drug Use and Health. Mr. Trahan has experience with database managment systems, survey control systems and is experienced with Visual Basic,PHP, Cold Fusion (CFML) Java and various web based scripting languages/technologies such as Javascript and AJAX. He holds a BS in Computer Informations Systems and a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from Thomas College and a Masters in Economics from North Carolina State University.
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Robert Agans
Prothro Student Paper Competition Chair
UNC - Chapel Hill
919-843-5923
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Robert Agans Ph.D. is the Co-Director of the Survey Research Unit (SRU) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The SRU is housed in the Department of Biostatistics in the School of Public Health and is dedicated to collecting population-based data through state-of-the-art procedures. He received his Ph.D. in social psychology at Texas A&M University in 1992 and completed a two-year post doctorate in epidemiology at the University of Arizona in 1995. Before coming to Carolina, Robert taught for the University of Maryland’s overseas program in such places as Korea, Japan, Spain, Italy, Iceland, and Bosnia. Robert’s expertise is in questionnaire design and development. His latest research interest has focused on nonresponse measurement issues, respondent driven sampling, and sampling cell-only households.
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