Research Methodology Consultants
Thesis and Dissertation Statistics
Statistics Help for Students
Statistical Data Analysis Services
Quantitative Research Methods

VICTORIA BRIONES graduated with a Ph.D. in Organizational Psychology from Columbia University. While completing her graduate studies, she taught applied regression analysis to graduate students in education and psychology. Students enjoyed her regression course because she was able to translate complex statistical concepts into a language that the “stats phobic” students could easily understand. Victoria was also an assistant lecturer in research methods (and received the highest mean evaluation for teaching performance). After graduating, she was a research vellow at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. As a fellow, she conducted statistical analyses and wrote articles on negotiation behavior and conflict resolution with her former dissertation adviser.

In the last two years, Victoria has worked as a statistical consultant, helping graduate students in psychology, education, nursing, biology, and business hone their study hypotheses, arrive at better operational definitions of their study variables, and improve procedures to increase the internal and/or external validity of their study. She also performed general statistical procedures such as reliability analyses, non-parametric tests (e.g., Mann-Whitney, Kruskal-Wallis, and chi-square tests), t-tests, analysis of variance (ANOVA), analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), exploratory factor analysis (EFA), and linear regression. Further, she conducted multivariate tests such as multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), logistic regression, and structural equation modeling (SEM; using AMOS, LISREL, and EQS). Victoria also created summary tables and graphs of statistical findings and helped students interpret their study results. More importantly, she enjoyed explaining basic statistical procedures and findings to clients who had a limited understanding of such concepts.

Scope: research methods, reliability analyses, t-tests, ANOVA, repeated-measures ANOVA, ANCOVA, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, multiple linear regression, logistic regression, MANOVA, structural equation modeling (AMOS, LISREL, and EQS)

"She was wonderful. I was having difficulty putting all the information together and she just cleared things up for me. My stress level has definitely gotten better!"

"She is the best stat consultant. I could not finish my dissertation without her. She is available almost 24 hours and responded to all of my questions. She returned my work so quickly. Her explanation was always clear and accurate even though I am not good at statistics. She is so patient for explaining every detail stat question."

"Victoria was very professional and prompt in her service delivery. She had a command of the updated literature. I was very comfortable that she knew the current trends in the statistics I needed to use for my dissertation. She was extremely thorough and answered all of my questions in language I could comprehend. I would recommend Victoria to any graduate students who need help with advanced statistics for their projects."

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BARRY COLLINS is Emeritus Professor of Psychology at UCLA. His numerous publications cover social psychology, applied social psychology, research methods, attitude change, persuasion, and social influence, Dissonance Theory, the design and evaluation of questionnaire measures, interviewing, health education, and community-based participatory research. These publications use a wide variety of statistical analyses. He served as Director of Research at Healthy African American Families II. He has taught at Yale and Stanford and was a Prof. of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin. He has written a textbooks on social psychology and research methods. He coauthored a book on Theories of Attitude Change. He has served and chair and vice chair of the human subjects protection committee (IRB). He has been an advisor for over a hundred undergraduate honors theses and MA and PhD theses. He has served as a social-psychology expert witness in court cases. His BS and MA were in communication at Northwestern University. He has focuses on one-on-one mentoring on activities ranging from: (a) the choice of a research topic that is relevant to the interests and skills of a particular student, (b) the identification of the most relevant theories, (c) the development of hypotheses, (d) research design, (e) the organization of research writing, (f) methods sections, (g) data analyses and the presentation results, and (h) the interpretation of results.

He has frequently served as a consulting editor for the major journals in social psychology, evaluating manuscrips for potential publication.

Research Interests

• Applied Social Psychology
• Close Relationships
• Communication
• Culture/Ethnicity
• Ethics/Morality
• Health
• Interpersonal Processes
• Person Perception
• Persuasion/Social Influence
• Prejudice/Stereotyping
• Research Methods/Assessment
• Self/Identity

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TOM GRANOFF, Ph.D.has spent more than 30 years providing research methodological and data analysis support in academic settings using SPSS and SAS. Tom typically works on numerous scholarly projects each year. Tom assists students who are obtaining advanced degrees in psychology, counseling, education, public health, leadership, business, marketing, sociology, management, and nursing. He also worked for many years in marketing research and data processing positions in the health care industry. A popular instructor, Dr. Granoff teaches graduate-level research methods and statistics courses for Loyola Marymount University and Pepperdine University, both in Los Angeles. He prides himself in being able to explain most multivariate statistical tests in simple English without using complex mathematical formulas. Tom educates his clients so that they car take full responsibility for the contents of their study, and assists them in preparing for their oral defense.  His formal education includes a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology plus Master's degrees in Theology and Industrial/Organizational Psychology.

tomgranoff@editing-writing.com

For research proposals (Methods Chapter), Tom provides technical assistance in the following ways: helping set up the research design, reviewing surveys, assistance in selecting appropriate statistical tests, helping determine needed sample sizes (power analyses), helping develop operational definitions; developing hypotheses/research questions; measuring constructs; and tutoring students in the understanding and usage of appropriate research and statistical terminology.  Tom often edits the Methodology Chapter to ensure that the purpose statement, research questions, the hypotheses, the data gathered, and the statistical approaches are in accord.  

For data analysis projects (Results Chapter), Tom’s provides ethical assistance that does not conflict with your university’s plagiarism and academic integrity policies.  Tom will first have a brief free consultation with the student’s thesis/dissertation advisor and gain the appropriate permission before any formal work is conducted.  After securing written permission, Tom can provide any of the following services: create suitable SPSS files, help prepare the dataset for analysis, run relevant statistical tests or teach the student how to do it themselves, provide tutoring in the interpretation of SPSS output, and provide generic examples of how SPSS output could be transformed into APA style tables and narrative.  After the student has the draft of the Results Chapter, Tom can then provide technical editing to ensure the findings are presented in a clear, accurate and compelling manner.

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VICKI LAWRENCE is an academic researcher who studies the epidemiologic nature of social conditions in relation to cardiovascular and other disease outcomes. More specifically, her work focuses on studies of poor health among African Americans and health disparities that may occur my age, race, and gender in cardiovascular and mental health outcomes. Utilizing her background in epidemiology and biostatistics, she has provided statistical support on multiple studies with various investigators commonly focused on physical and mental health data. In addition, she has worked with clinicians, research investigators, and tutored multiple graduate students as well in public health, epidemiology, social work, medicine, education, and nursing to tackle statistics related issues.

Dr. Lawrence takes a significant amount of effort to ensure the students and researchers she collaborates with or supports understand the theoretical rationale behind the methods appropriate for their research problems, meeting the students and researchers at their stage of understanding. In addition to explaining the foundations, she regularly provides each individual with the opportunity to ask questions, and explains the differences in statistical approaches as needed. Further, she can help develop data analysis plans, refine research questions, and examine data collection methodologies with clients as well.

In her own work, Dr. Lawrence has used exploratory/ descriptive analysis tools (such as t-tests) and nonparametric tests, ANOVA (including one way, two way, repeated measures and others), structural equation modeling, exploratory factor analyses, multilevel models, linear regression, logistic regression, multinomial regression, and growth curve modeling as well. She has prepared analytical methods sections for publications, including tables of regression outputs. Further, she can provide information relevant to epidemiologic methods, including prevalence, incidence, risk and rate ratios, causal diagrams (including mediating and moderating variables) and other topics as needed. She has used a variety of data sets of both large and small magnitude, including nationally representative public data sets such as NHANES and the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, but has also used survey as well as medical systems based data. She has substantial experience using SAS and Excel, and also uses HLM and SPSS.

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RONALD B MARKS , PhD was a marketing professor, now retired from the University of Wisconsin. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Missouri - Columbia, with a major in Marketing and minor in statistics. During his thirty year career, he taught undergraduate and graduate market research and multivariate statistics amongst other courses. He made extensive usage of SPSS, Minitab, and LISREL in both teaching and research. His research credentials in the use of multivariate statistics are evidenced in articles, such as: "A Structural Equation Model of Predictors for Effective Online Learning," Journal of Management Education, 29 (4), August, 2005 and "Psychometric Evaluation of the ADAPTS Scale," Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, Vol. XVI (4) (Fall, 1996, 53-56)

He attended seminars in "Multivariate Statistics" at the University of Colorado and "General Structural Equation ("Lisrel") Models," (Introduction and Advanced) at the Inter University Consortium for Political and Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He also conducted similar faculty seminars in Multivariate Statistics at the University of Wisconsin.

In counseling dissertation students and business clients, his experience is that "a problem well defined is half solved." Or as Tom Peters suggested in his best-selling book on management, "if you don't know where you are going, you are likely to end up somewhere else." That is, no matter how arcane the statistics employed, they will never compensate for poorly stated hypotheses and literature review. Hence, when consulting with students, he helps them first develop lucid, operational hypotheses and then determines which statistical methods to use, rather than the converse.

Scope: multivariate statistics, behavioral sciences, marketing research, research design, SPSS, Minitab, structural equation modeling (LISREL), survey research, web-based surveys, quantitative methods, correlation, ANOVA, MANOVA, multiple regression, discriminant analysis, factor analysis, methodology chapter editing, nonparametric tests (such as chi-square or Mann-Whitney U Test), statistical application to social science data (e.g. psychology, sociology, economics) and business data (e.g. finance, business, and marketing), can aid with set-up of data files, analysis of sample characteristics, can also help develop persuasive Power Point presentations for oral defenses or business presentations.

"Using Ron was the best decision we made about our graduate research project. While we knew the field of anesthesia, none of us were statisticians and we struggled greatly in making sense of our data. Ron simplified everything and had most of our questions answered within 48 hours of our initial request. Excellent service and quality."

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JULIE OLANDER earned a dual-title Ph.D. in Demography and Sociology from the Pennsylvania State University and a M.A. in Demographic and Social Analysis from the University of California at Irvine. 

She approaches research from an interdisciplinary background and has published on a variety of topics in public health, criminology, and sociology, including family structure and the risk of child abuse, tort reforms and physician sanctioning, the impact of education on attitudes toward deviance, and changes in suicide rates. 

Dr. Olander specializes in mixed methods and longitudinal statistical analysis and has used survival analysis (i.e., Cox proportional hazards regression), time series regression, panel regression, Poisson and negative binomial regression, and logistic regression.  She is also experienced in factor analysis, structural equation modeling, analysis of survey data, period effects, the handling of clustered/dependent observations, interaction effects, and descriptive statistics. 

She teaches graduate-level Demographic Analysis courses and is skilled in demographic methods such as standardization, life tables, and cohort decomposition (cohort analysis).  Her dissertation analysis on the decline of suicide in Sweden (1950-2000) was unique in that she combined qualitative methods (interviews) with attitudinal data from multiple waves of surveys and a variety of demographic and population data.  She lived in Sweden as a Fulbright graduate student researcher to collect her data. 

She uses U.S. and international population data sources and analyzes large, longitudinal data sets, including the World Values Surveys and the U.S. General Social Survey.  Dr. Olander takes a hands-on mentoring approach with students and prides herself on making complex statistical analyses accessible to less-technical audiences.

“Great class! She is the sweetest professor and really wants to see her students do well. You will learn a lot.”
“She is a great professor. Take her if you can. I highly recommend her.”

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ELIZABETH PEARMAN , Ph.D. has spent more than 17 years designing surveys, analyzing data using SAS and SPSS, programming SAS and SPSS, developing assessments for unique situations, research design, developing sampling frames, calculating sample size, program evaluation, qualitative design, and qualitative analysis. Along with being an independent consultant in program evaluation, she teaches graduate classes Master's and Doctoral level research methods, qualitative methods, program evaluation, statistical programming, and lifespan development at the University of Northern Colorado for the Department of Applied Statistics and Research Methods and the Department of Educational Psychology. She has served on 25 dissertation committees and has consulted with another 40+ doctoral students on design, statistics, statistical programming, and conceptualization. Her formal education includes a B.M. from the University of Missouri at Kansas City, an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Northern Colorado in Educational Psychology specializing in research methods, measurement/assessment, program evaluation and statistics.

Betsy can help you with all phases of your dissertation/thesis from conceptualizing the dissertation/thesis, use of qualitative methods, qualitative design, qualitative analysis or quantitative methods. Her statistical skills are extensive (descriptive, inferential, multivariate, regression analysis, factor and cluster analysis, and reliability and validity, etc.) along with expertise in survey/questionnaire design and development, methodology chapter editing, sampling techniques and sample size calculation, proposal development, defense preparation, web-based surveys, data entry, data editing, statistical programming, measurement/ assessment, data interpretation and understanding, experimental and quasi-experimental design, Internal Review Board applications, informed consent forms.

She can make statistics understandable, will help you develop and edit your methodology chapter, assist you in understanding your data, help you with formulating your research questions, and guide you from the conceptualization of your dissertation/thesis to the defense so you will learn and understand your data, results, and study.

"... after my wife and children, you come in a close second. Below are my acknowledgements and while you're listed after my committee (I felt compelled to put them at the top) you are truly the most important contributor to my work. While the statistics were a component, your help with the survey instrument leading up to the statistics really helped me bridge a gap and work toward closure. Without the instrument and the associated statistics I would have been lost and at a time when I didn't know what to do, you gave me guidance. It may not even be anything you remember but your effort on the survey really set me on the right path. For that I thank you!"

"Words can't express how instrumental you were in this process. When I sought out assistance I didn't expect someone as dedicated as you. Although my dissertation focused on the motivation of elementary students the findings had implications that suited me as well. It's always nice to be believed in. Your goal structure is definitely in the 'mastery' realm. You made me believe in myself even when there was so much doubt. I appreciate the long hours that you invested in me, not to mention, the encouraging words that often times calmed my fears. You knew exactly what to say at the right time. Your expertise is invaluable."

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WES RUSSELL, PhD, has been referred to as a “rocket scientist turned management consultant.” In truth, he applies an eclectic body of work from astronomy and nuclear physics to dynamic inventory management to market research to each of his student engagements. Dr. Russell has taught, coached, and mentored thousands of students over the past 20 years, including service on dozens of students’ doctoral committees. Russell works directly with doctoral students through all phases of the dissertation process, helping them to develop sound, actionable research questions, sharpening focus, aligning the research methodology and design, assisting with data analysis, and making sense of the results. Dr. Russell’s dissertation coaching follows a project-based model designed keep students organized and efficient throughout the dissertation process. As a result, Dr. Russell’s clients earn their degrees in less time, saving thousands of dollars in tuition and dozens, if not hundreds, of hours in wasted effort.

In addition, Dr. Russell consults on data-analysis projects for corporate and private clients using SPSS, SAS, JMP, LISREL, Minitab, Wizard, and other data-analysis software. Analysis projects include (but are not limited to) ANOVA, chi-square tests, confirmatory factor analysis, correlation, discriminant analysis, exploratory factor analysis, linear programming, linear regression, MANOVA, Mann-Whitney U-tests, methodology-chapter consulting, mixed methods, multiple regression, multivariate statistics, nonparametric tests, normal distributions, quantitative methods, research design, research methodology, results-chapter consulting, student’s t-test, structural equation modeling (LISREL), SurveyMonkey, survey research, two-population t-tests, and web-based surveys.

Dr. Russell works with students and professionals in the areas of behavioral sciences, business, counseling, economics, education, entrepreneurship, finance, innovation, international business, leadership, management, marketing, nursing, operations management, project management, psychology, public health, public policy, risk management, strategy, sociology, supply-chain management, sustainability, and technology management, among others.

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DJ SIMONS, is a graduate of the University of North Carolina’s developmental psychology program, where he had a formal concentration in quantitative methods.  He has served as a teacher’s assistant many times, including four times for Statistics for Psychologists and twice for Research Methods for Psychology.  He has also served as a data analyst for a private education research firm, and has privately tutored undergraduate and graduate students in statistics.

DJ has aided students and colleagues through all steps of the research process, from formulating a research question and hypothesis, through data analysis, to reporting the results in a scholarly fashion using APA style. He is happy to help undergraduate and graduate students with their statistics classes, master’s theses or doctoral dissertations in the social sciences, explaining every step of the process clearly and concisely. He will make sure that you understand your data, and that you can speak intelligently on its content, use and application.

He can advise on, among other things, research methodology, ANOVA, ANCOVA, t-tests, linear, multiple and logistic regression, chi-square, factor analysis, and hierarchical linear modeling/multilevel modeling (HLM). Although his background is in quantitative psychology, he can help with statistics for other social sciences such as Sociology, Social Work and Education.  He is highly proficient with SPSS, both menu-based and syntax, and can also help with SAS, SPSS, CEFA, and R.

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