Kathryn Korostoff is President and Lead Instructor at Research Rockstar Training & Staffing. With a team of 10 expert instructors and 100+ fully vetted consultants, Kathryn works to advance market research and insights excellence. She wants everyone to be a Research Rockstar! She is a hands-on market researcher and has personally conducted over 600 primary research projects. A frequent speaker at market research events and former professor, Kathryn is also a past President of the Insights Association New England Chapter, and a former national board member. She can be reached at [email protected]. And be sure to check out her video podcast on market research methodology and career trends (see Conversations for Research Rockstars on the Research Rockstar YouTube channel).

Amy is the primary research strategist & analyst at Solutions Through Research, LLC which she founded in 2012. In this role, she supports and leads research strategies for a variety of businesses, both B2C and B2B. Amy also regularly works with research firms to fill workstream gaps and has had the pleasure of working on hundreds of studies over the years, both qualitative and quantitative in nature. Prior to Solutions Through Research, Amy was a client-side researcher with Gannett, Inc. (owner of USA Today and many U.S. newspaper/website brands). Her client-side career spanned 11+ years. Amy is a certified insights professional (IPC) through the Insights Association and is a member of QRCA, ASA, and AMA. She earned a B.A. in rhetoric from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign as well as certificates in market research from the University of Georgia and geographic information science & technology from the University of Southern California.

With deep insights leadership experience at companies including UnitedHealth Group, U.S. Bank, GfK, and The Toro Company, Michelle is an insights leader who brings strategic and practical insights solutions to help organizations answer key business questions. Michelle has spent more than 25 years on both the client and supplier sides of insights & marketing research. She has built and led insights functions for Fortune 100 companies. In addition, she has mentored countless marketing research, marketing and product development professionals across many industries in the art of insights & research. Michelle has executed hundreds of quantitative and qualitative projects across many methodologies. Some of her favorite experiences include launching customer experience/NPS programs, groundbreaking segmentation initiatives and conducting qualitative projects. When she’s not studying people, Michelle is traveling the globe with her family. They have made it to five continents together—and counting!

Industry veteran, Jeff McKenna, is the founder of MCK Insights and he provides a deep background in the design and delivery of market research projects, particularly in the area of data processing, advanced methodologies and data reporting. He has years of experience in new product development, segmentation, brand development, customer satisfaction and tracking projects. And Jeff has delivered strategic and actionable solutions to clients at all levels in client organizations (from market researchers to CEOs), including complex customer experience, segmentation, brand tracking and integrated EFM programs. He has designed and delivered CX programs for several Fortune 500 companies, incorporating customer feedback with several other internal data sources. He has designed and implemented reporting platforms used by thousands of service and marketing managers in multiple industries. More than simply delivering data, each solution enables users to prioritize action planning and estimate financial value associated with different performance levels. Jeff has a BA in Sociology/Anthropology from Swarthmore College and an MBA from The George Washington University.

Julie Worwa is the sole proprietor at JMW Research, an independent market research consultancy. Julie successfully designs and executes goal-oriented market research programs designed to meet clients’ business objectives. She builds strong relationships with clients, communicating depth of expertise and results in clear, concise, and actionable reports and demonstrations. Julie has personally completed 500+ primary research projects, with deep expertise in consumer behavior, customer satisfaction, market segmentation, needs discovery, and product concept testing.

Alaine Lerner, Owner and Principal of A.J.Lerner Market Research, has over 30 years of market research experience as an independent consultant and research manager. She has spent that time designing and implementing research studies to support new product development, customer satisfaction, product or service positioning/repositioning and new business development. Alaine utilizes qualitative, secondary, observational and quantitative research methods - combined with practical experience - to identify insights and inspire creative, intuitive and actionable strategies. Over the years, Alaine has worked with a wide range of industries and has extensive project experience in education, healthy and organic foods, non-profits, products and services, telecom and medical/health care. Alaine has a B.A. in Economics from the University of Michigan and an M.B.A. in Marketing from the University of Denver, where she serves on their executive advisory board and is a guest speaker in marketing classes.

Marni Martens is a research practitioner with a multidisciplinary background in market research and human-centered design research. With over 20 years of experience, she has worked across all phases of business, from strategy and development to marketing and evaluation. Marni brings both a creative and analytical lens to all of her work, helping leaders triangulate business objectives with market opportunities and customer realities. Marni holds a B.A. in Sociology from the University of Illinois at Chicago and certifications in Market Research from RIVA Training Institute and in User Experience from Bentley University. She has spearheaded the research and development for numerous award-winning products, overseen digital transformations, and operationalized research and development processes. Her experience spans B2B & B2C sectors, including education, health, technology, consumer products and nonprofit/community-based organizations.

Jim Newswanger has over twenty years of experience with primary quantitative and qualitative research initiatives. He has end-to-end skills including questionnaire design, sampling, analysis, and presentation. He has been the Senior Market Intelligence Leader for Corporate Functions at IBM and led the primary market research skill set specialty. At IBM, he directed the "Jam" program, which involves time-limited online conference-like discussions--and the analysis of a large corpus of text to identify themes, sentiments, and influencers. (The Jam research model won an AMA/Nielsen EXPLOR Award and has been described in Harvard Business Review). Jim was a Senior Management Consultant in pharma at ZS Associates in Princeton, NJ, where he was also co-founder of an e-health startup called Cozint. Before ZS, Jim was a Vice President at SRBI New York, handling all aspects of blue-chip client projects across most industries. He has an earned Ph.D. in Applied Statistics (PREM Program) from Penn and an Executive MBA from Quantic. He is a proud member of AAPOR, the American Psychological Association, and the Digital Analytics Association. He is based in New York City.