Qualitative Research

Professionally I've had a lot of experience with quantitative research, specifically related to outcome survey data in the health field, essentially Health-related Quality of Life (HQoL). But during these same year between undergraduate and graduate school appreciating the insight this type of data afforded, I often also witnessed their limitations and how often specific questions, or even whole surveys, failed to capture the items and facets of patient's lives that mattered most to them. This taught me the value of qualitative data.

master's thesis

MPH 2017

My thesis is titled Marginalized Consumers: Exploring Disability, Body Image and Clothing Consumption. As partial completion of my MPH degree this paper reflects an impressive research endeavor to collect rich primary through 20 in-depth interviews with people with disabilities to gain first hand input on how they experience and consume clothing. This is also currently a working paper I hope to put out for publication in the next year. 

preliminary qualitative look at clothing and apparel

Brown University Qualitative Methods Course Spring 16'

Inspired by my own experience with disabling health conditions and years of professional work with kids with diverse disability For our course project, I conducted three in-depth interviews with three individuals with limb differences or amputations, to learn about their experiences with apparel. This would eventually grow into a full fledged IRB approved research endeavor and direct my thesis work in partial completion of my MPH degree. 

juvenile delinquent case study

Ithaca College Family Health Problems Course Fall 07'

The core of this course in our program was the ongoing case study we conducted in partnership with residents at a local detention center, the Louis Gossett Jr. Residential Center for youth. We meet weekly for nearly 2 hours and listened and learned about their lives, circumstances etc. "The Louis Gossett Jr. Center houses 13 to 17 year old delinquent boys in South Lansing.  It is one of ten such facilities in New York State, operated by the NYS Office of Children and Family Services." This experience getting to know two young boys from immigrant families was extremely enlightening and shed light on the complexity of family and crime. Unfortunately, it was later exposed in late 2016 that this center had a history and habit of excessive force as highlighted in this NY Times piece.

Worksite wellness

Ithaca College Development and Evaluation of Health Programs Fall 07'

As partial completion of a course while studying community health at Ithaca College, myself and four fellow classmates did a needs assessment of Quality of Life/Worksite Wellness of Ithaca Faculty using mixed methods (survey and focus groups). We then presented our findings at the James J. Whalen Academic Symposium in April 2008