Thomas I. Miller, Ph.D. is the President and CEO of National Research Center. He received a Ph.D. in research and evaluation methods from the University of Colorado. He has worked in state and local government since 1977. With Michelle Kobayashi and Shannon Hayden, he wrote Citizen Surveys for Local Government: A Comprehensive Guide to Making Them Matter, published in 2009 by ICMA, Washington, D.C. Tom founded National Research Center, Inc. in 1994. He has designed, overseen and written results of hundreds of research and evaluation projects and presented his findings to a wide variety of audiences, both academic and lay. He has written about survey research in journals devoted to public management, including Public Administration Review, Journal of the American Planning Association, Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Planning Commissioners Journal, Management Science and Policy Analysis and Governing. Believing that low-cost, quality surveys are an important part of local government management, Tom has spent years developing protocols and products for NRC that best serve the needs of local government.

Michelle Miller Kobayashi, MSPH, is Vice President of NRC and serves as the lead of Innovation and Product Development. Michelle has conducted numerous complex statistical weighting procedures for our survey research, and developed statistical models from our survey results to understand the risk factors predicting resident behaviors and attitudes and the need for community services. Her statistical expertise extends far beyond the standard descriptive and inferential statistics required by frequency distributions and cross-tabulations. She has built statistical models using logistic regression, performed risk analyses using adjusted odds ratios and validated survey instruments using factor analysis. To prove she speaks English, too, Michelle has made scores of presentations to public managers, elected officials and staff and she has designed and overseen a wide variety of surveys on topics that include citizen satisfaction with government services, public trust, growth and land use planning, urban renewal, transportation, open space and fair market rental rates. She co-authored Citizen Surveys: How to do them, how to use them, what they mean with Tom Miller and worked as chief project manager on a variety of health care outcome projects with Evaluation Systems International, Inc. In addition to working with a large roster of custom clients, Michelle’s responsibility is to identify, recommend, and develop new products and services that support NRC’s clientele.

Shannon Hayden, M.A., Chief Operating Officer of NRC, earned her undergraduate degree in Sociology from The Colorado College and a master’s degree in Educational Psychology (emphasis on research and evaluation methodology) from the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center. Shannon is a co-author, along with Tom Miller and Michele Kobayashi, of Citizen Surveys for Local Government: A Comprehensive Guide to Making Them Matter. She has been involved in dozens of projects at NRC, working as a project manager and on all aspects of the projects, including survey instrument development, overseeing data collection and analyzing and reporting the data. She helped develop The National Citizen Survey™ and oversaw the Beta Site testing of this project. Her background includes a number of years in marketing. Shannon manages day-to-day operations at NRC, as well as the implementation of strategic initiatives and R&D.

Erin Caldwell, MSPH, serves as Director of Research Strategies at NRC. Erin has earned a master's degree in public health with an emphasis in research methods and statistics from The University of Colorado at Denver. Erin has over 10 years experience as a senior researcher and research manager working in and for local government. She has designed and conducted scores of citizen surveys, needs assessments, policy studies and program evaluations. Erin works with many custom clients and leads the design of custom research and evaluation projects as well as R&D.

Sonya Wytinck, M.S., serves as Director of Research Strategies at NRC. Sonya earned a master’s degree in Agricultural Economics from the University of Alberta and is a SAS Certified Professional. She comes to NRC with an extensive amount of survey design, testing, implementation and analysis experience. Her professional background spans the gamut, including work with rural student transportation issues, tribal and non-tribal fisheries in the Great Lakes, recreational damage on the Kalamazoo River and water distribution in the Mae Taeng Irrigation Project (Thailand). Sonya extends these skills across yet another border (the US-Canadian) to join NRC after serving as an economist for Alberta Health and Wellness. She works with clients both international and domestic and leads the design of custom research and evaluation projects as well as R&D.

Jessica Sharp, M.P.S., is Director of Development and Communications at NRC. Jessica earned a Master’s Degree in Leadership and Organizations with a focus in Strategic Innovations and Change from The University of Denver, and has more than ten years of experience as a development and communications professional. She has raised more than $40 million to date for organizations across the country, and has a track record for developing successful projects and programs at every level of government. At NRC, Jessica works to identify and manage partnerships that support our work, and leads marketing and communications efforts for the organization. She also supports our clients in sharing their results with the public.