Darren has over 20 years experience in social research and design and has previously worked with the Australian Institute of Multicultural Affairs, Australian Bureau of Statistics, Reark Research and the Wallis Consulting Group. Darren founded the Social Research Centre in 2000. Areas of expertise include large-scale survey design and management, longitudinal surveys and program / campaign evaluation. Darren’s specific interests are community attitudes research, health research, policy development research and the application of sophisticated survey methodologies. He is a full member of the Australian Market and Social Research Society and is accredited as a Qualified Practicing Market Researcher.  Darren is also a member of the American Association of Public Opinion Research and the Australasian Evaluation Society.

Graham has over 15 years experience in market and social research operations with a reputation for effectively managing large-scale, resource intensive, high stakes government research projects to industry-best standards.  Also a full member of the Australian Market and Social Research Society, Graham has previously held positions with Wells Research, Reark Research, AC Nielsen and NCS Pearson. His expertise is in large-scale survey management, complex multi-methodology projects and the development and execution of quality operational processes, with specific skills in response maximisation techniques, interviewer performance and enhanced data quality.

With over 25 years in social and marketing research, Terry is one of Australia’s leading analysts and Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI) programmers. He started in academic research at La Trobe University, then Melbourne University before becoming a Research Fellow at the Australian Institute of Family Studies. In 1983, Terry created the Tremayne Consulting Group, providing statistical and analytical consulting services and computer software to the industry. He is a specialist in quantitative social and marketing tracking and is a full member of the Australian Market and Social Research Society.

As a senior researcher with over 20 years experience, David has previously worked with Chadwick Martin Consultants, Reark Research and the Wallis Group.  Areas of expertise include communications effectiveness and advertising research, longitudinal research, customer satisfaction, automated reporting and advanced statistical analysis.  David is a full member of the Australian Market and Social Research Society.

Sonia has worked in applied social policy research and program evaluation since 1993.  Sonia’s research career has spanned academic research and evaluation roles, commercial market research and senior public sector research and evaluation.  Placements have included the University of NSW, the Tertiary Entrance Procedures Authority (Education Queensland), the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute, Roy Morgan Research and Department of Justice, Victoria.

Sonia is a professional research methodologist and program evaluator.  Particular interests include program evaluation, program logic mapping, large scale survey design and management, crime and safety research and service delivery assessment.  Sonia holds a Bachelor of Science (Psyc)(Hons) majoring in research design and statistics, a Masters in Program Evaluation and is currently completing her doctoral studies.

Nina has 6 years experience in social research in Australia and overseas having previously worked for Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The Brotherhood of St Laurence, and American Institutes for Research (U.S.).  Nina’s main role at the Social Research Centre is in the design and development of quantitative and qualitative research projects, and in the analysis and reporting of survey findings.  Nina holds a PhD in Political Science (Public Opinion/ Political Psychology).

Nikki has 5 years experience in market research in Australia and overseas having previously worked for Red Sheriff (an on-line research company), Taylor Nelson Sofres and ICM Research in London.  Nikki’s main role at the Social Research Centre is in the management, conduct and analysis of quantitative research projects, however, Nikki is also an insightful qualitative researcher.   Nikki holds a Bachelor of Science (Honours) Degree and Doctorate in Psychology.  Nikki joined the Social Research Centre in early 2006 to pursue her interest in social research.

Tina has 10 years experience in the market research industry, previously having worked with Roy Morgan Research and MLC.  Tina’s main area of expertise is in the development and management of quantitative research projects and her primary interest lies in social, health and government policy research.  She has QPMR accreditation and is a full member of the Australian Market and Social Research Society.

Nicole has worked as a research and statistical consultant since 2000 and is a senior researcher and statistician with the Social Research Centre.  Prior to joining the Social Research Centre, Nicole held senior research and statistical positions with the Cancer Council Victoria and the Australian New Zealand Intensive Care Society. 

At the Social Research Centre, Nicole is responsible for the day-to-day data management for our complex large-scale surveys, with a particular focus on our large ongoing time series and longitudinal studies.

Nicole’s role on these projects is to work with these complex data sets to ensure best-practice data processing and data management at all times. In addition to her data management role, Nicole also brings significant formal statistical expertise to the Social Research Centre, particularly in the areas of sample design, weighting and multivariate analysis.

Throughout her 8 years experience as a researcher, Rachel has worked extensively in government and social research and in particular in the areas of education, health, employment relations and disability.  Rachel has also worked extensively in social and public policy development and program evaluation. Particular interests include health research, cognitive testing methods, longitudinal and tracking studies and the analysis and interpretation of qualitative and quantitative data.

Felicity has worked for 10 years in the Australian Market and Social Research industry.  Felicity started her research career with Roy Morgan Research in 1998 and worked in senior questionnaire design, data analysis and project management roles during her time there.

Felicity is a very experienced researcher with particular expertise in managing large-scale tracking studies and customized research projects.  Felicity joined the Social Research Centre in late 2007 with a view to establishing a long term career in social research and brings specialist expertise in the management of large scale quantitative research projects to this role.

Adele has 5 years experience in market research, having worked as a project manager with McGregor Tan research in Adelaide before joining The Nielsen Company in Sydney as Senior Operations Executive where she managed the NSW / ACT field operations for the Household Income and Labour Dynamics Australia study (HILDA) as well as working on Nielsen Radio Ratings and various ad hoc projects.  Her main research interest revolves around the operational aspects of the research process, including refinement of procedures for response maximisation, methods to enhance data quality, interviewer training, and quality control systems.  Adele began her career with the Social Research Centre in August 2008.

Astrid is an experienced social researcher specialising in qualitative research.  Astrid has a sound understanding of research design and methodologies and has been responsible for studies amongst many diverse groups in society including homosexuals, children, unemployed and homeless youth, persons on income support, parents, students, the elderly, and the mentally ill.

Astrid has a Degree in Sociology and Human Behaviour as well as a Diploma in Social Statistics, and has written numerous descriptive, analytical and interpretative consulting reports over the years.

Jenna has extensive experience in project management gained whilst working for the London Borough of Camden. Jenna’s previous research experience includes roles with the Western Australian Department of Health, and the Cancer Foundation of Western Australia. Jenna holds a Bachelor of Health Science (Health Promotion).

Jenna joined the Social Research Centre in September 2006 as a Research Executive, in order to pursue her interest in social research. She moved to the Heart Foundation in late 2007, but has recently returned to take up the role of a Researcher.

Sharon commenced her research career in the UK in 2002 working as a Marketing Executive with Bucknall Austin before moving to MBRB (one of the leading market research agencies in the UK and a key operating company within the Millward Brown Group) in 2004.  Sharon accepted a Senior Research Executive position with Consensus Research International in October 2005. 

Sharon’s research experience encompasses qualitative and quantitative research and methodologies used include qualitative interviewing, focus group discussions, client participation workshops, CATI, self completion mail out surveys, on-line surveys and web assisted telephone interviews.  Sharon began her Australian research career with the Social Research Centre in May 2008.

Chris has over 12 years experience in market research operations, as both a team leader and senior survey programmer.  His main interest lies in the management of data quality, quality control procedures, forward planning and resource management.  Chris’s role at the Social Research Centre is to manage data quality and handling procedures, ensure the continuous development and improvement of our Operations Division, and to work across all areas of the company to maintain our Quality Management System.

With 13 years experience in data processing and analysis in the market research industry, Hui is a leading Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI) programmer. Hui’s career began with Reark Research where she worked for ten years developing considerable expertise in various generalist and specialist market research packages such as UNIX, DOS, Quantum, Quancept and Surveycraft.

Hui then held positions at Taylor Nelson Sofres and DBM Consultants before joining the Social Research Centre in 2004.  Hui has a wealth of knowledge, experience and expertise in programming and analysis for government and social research projects.

With over 15 years experience in the research industry, Cathy has developed a diverse range of programming and analytical skills.  Cathy’s expertise includes the creation and processing of complex survey questionnaires, data validation, data analysis, sampling, statistical significance testing, weighting of survey data and the production of complex cross tabulations of survey data. 

In addition, Cathy has considerable expertise in a wide range of generalist and specialist market research packages including UNIX, DOS, Quantum, Quancept, Surveycraft and SPSS.

Erika has 11 years experience in Market Research programming.  Her expertise covers a wide range of programming languages such as Star, Surveycraft, Quantum and Visual Basic for Applications (VBA).  Erika has previously worked with Roy Morgan Research, AC Nielsen, I-view (NCS) and Lighthouse Data Collection.  Erika holds a Bachelor of Applied Science (in Mathematics) majoring in Statistics and Operations Research from RMIT, and is a full member of the Market Research Society of Australia. 

Tess has 20 years experience in computing and as a systems analyst and programmer.  Her expertise covers a wide range of programming languages such as SAS, SPSS, Quantum and Unix.  Tess has worked as an analyst for the Victorian Ministry for the Arts, as data analyst / programmer with Reark Research and as a Statistical Analyst and Senior Researcher with Citipower and the Victorian WorkCover Authority.  Tess holds a Bachelor of Science in Statistics from the University of the Philippines, and a Graduate Diploma in Computing from Monash University.

Karen worked as an interviewer, Senior Research Executive and Project Manager in her 17 year career with Research International prior to joining the Social Research Centre in early 2008.

Karen’s role, as Call Centre Manager, requires her to manage the day to day operations of our 110 station Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI) Call Centre.
In this role, Karen works in close conjunction with the Director, Research Services and the Manager, Quality Systems.  Karen’s broad responsibilities entail day to day operational planning, the overall quality and timeliness of our telephone survey operations, ensuring appropriate resources are in place to support our large project workload, managing productivity and overseeing quality control for all data collection functions.

Cameron joined the Social Research Centre in a research support role in January 2008 with a view to applying his analysis, data management and statistical skills.  Cameron supports senior researchers on large projects with tasks such as sample cleaning, questionnaire and output checking, data manipulation and quality assurance.  Cameron has a BA (Hons) majoring in Sociology and is currently studying for a Master of Science (Applied Statistics).