Martha Stapleton Email & Phone Number

Rockville, Md

Centralized and standardized questionnaire design and pretesting within Westat by establishing Instrument Design, Evaluation and Analysis (IDEA) Services.Grew IDEA Services from a staff of 8 to currently almost 30, from serving a handful of projects in one or two departments to dozens of projects across every Westat department.Manage and mentor an internal team of junior and senior level qualitative methodologists who have specialized expertise in survey questionnaire design and pretesting.Provide expert consultation to both internal and external clients, ranging from responding to one-time questions to managing projects up to $10M in value.Develop and lead company-wide training modules related to various questionnaire design and pretesting topics.Lead proposal-writing teams and contribute to corporate business development efforts.

Rockville, Md

Managed a wide variety of cognitive testing and data collection projects. Responsible for all aspects of the work including budget, schedule and staffing.Contributed to the development of survey translation practices that are recognized industry-wide.Established a presence within Westat as a technical expert on questionnaire design and pretesting methods.Served as lead author on technical sections of proposals related to questionnaire design and development.Promoted to personnel supervisor, responsible for project assignments and career development of junior- and senior-level staff.

Rockville, Md

Led small-scale qualitative methods projects to improve questionnaire design for a variety of Federal agencies such as the National Cancer Institute and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.Interfaced with sub-contractors and vendors to ensure service delivery.Conducted cognitive testing, focus group testing, concept/message-testing, behavior coding, and individual interviewing to evaluate and improve effectiveness of health services communication messages.Generated final reports and recommendations, contributed to proposals.

Rockville, Md

Conducted individual interviews and focus groups for a variety of qualitative projects.Contributed to qualitative analysis tasks, wrote sections of final reports.Developed and administered a variety of operational procedures for data collection projects including work flow processes, interviewer training, and documentation manuals.Conducted numerous literature reviews on varied content areas, including accuracy of body-image self-reporting, Hispanic assimilation to American society, effects of long-term drug treatment interventions, governmental inter-agency partnerships.Used SAS, SPSS, Excel and statistical packages proprietary to Westat to perform basic statistical analyses tasks.

College Park, Md

Coordinated competitive summer program for paid survey research internships at federal statistical agencies. Duties included organizing the application and selection process; eliciting participation from government agencies; designing 10-week education component, consisting of weekly seminars presented by survey research industry leaders; securing housing for program participants; and serving as primary point of contact for the 20+ interns and the participating agencies.

Washington, Dc

Wrote literature review chapter for a major report on occupations with part-time, career-enhancing work for managers and professionals.Supervised the collection and data entry of secondary statistical information for a major project on the economic status of women in each of the fifty states.Analyzed national changes in occupational segregation over a ten-year period using the Current Population Survey.

Washington, Dc

Conducted an original investigation into the effectiveness of family-friendly policies, such as flextime, paid parental leave, assistance with child care costs, using a large national data set and regression techniques.Created course materials and handouts for 30-100 students at all undergraduate levels. Formulated objective and subjective examinations and evaluated them.Provided classroom instruction on relevant topics.

Oberlin, Oh

Designed, implemented, and analyzed survey and focus group research related to key issues in the retail industry.Initiated investigation into the economic and professional status of women in the college store industry. Assessed results of both individual interviews and statistical data. In response to findings, the association board allocated funds for an industry-wide survey of women's concerns.Initiated and administered an in-house assessment of computer training needs, which resulted in the hiring of additional computer support staff.Identified and monitored legislative issues that impacted specific member groups.Managed the creation, promotion, and dissemination of targeted products.Developed ideas for, wrote, and edited a quarterly newsletter for 2300 members.

Master Of Arts (M.A.), Sociology

Thesis topic: Exploration of the impact of presence of family-friendly benefits on perception of work/life balance

Bachelor Of Arts (B.A.), Women'S Studies/Political Science, 3.91

Senior Honor's Thesis Topic: Accidental motherhood: Reproductive control and access to opportunity among women in Canada. Published.