Debra brings 30 years of experience in research methods, measurement, data collection, and project management. She specializes in designing and implementing studies for groups that have been historically underserved and economically disadvantaged, such as families with low incomes, foster children, recipients of school and summer meals, Medicaid beneficiaries, and individuals with disabilities. Her expertise is in the design and implementation of multimode surveys, including telephone/face-to-face, mail/telephone, and web/telephone, as well as qualitative data collection methods, such as cognitive testing, focus groups, and in-depth interviews.

An experienced project director, Debra leads large, complex projects and manages Westat Insight’s survey and family support work. She has supported projects for clients such as the U.S. departments of Health and Human Services, Agriculture, Defense, Housing and Urban Development, and Education, and the Social Security Administration. Debra currently directs Westat Insight’s work on a large-scale survey for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services: the Monitoring and Evaluation of Medicare Part C and D Plan Sponsors’ Customer Service and Pharmacy Call Centers, a telephone survey designed to measure the responsiveness of customer service call centers for Medicare sponsors.

Earlier, Debra was an associate director at Mathematica Policy Research. She has written several papers on collecting data using multimode methodologies and the impact of survey mode on responses to sensitive questions. She holds a Ph.D. in human development and family studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.