MARKET DECISIONS RESEARCH - Key Persons


Adam Johnson

Job Titles:
  • Research Manager
Mr. Johnson excels at complex detail-oriented tasks requiring technical precision. He is an expert at managing large scale research and data collection projects, ensuring speed and accuracy. As Research Manager, Adam manages efforts for projects across all modes of surveying, including via mail, phone, online as well as focus groups and has ease and familiarity with compiling, modifying, and integrating large scale sample lists for data collection efforts. Adam also manages the day-to-day operations of MDR's PRAMS division, directing both the phone efforts and survey mailings. He provides client states with regular updates in productivity and suggestions for improvements in operational processes. Through his work on PRAMS Adam found that he is skilled at updating and modernizing data collection methodology to reflect current industry best practices (for example, including QR codes on survey invitations and conducting UX testing and quality control for CDC PRAMS online survey modules for two of five pilot grantees). Adam started at Market Decisions as a phone interviewer and data processor. Since then, Adam has been involved with over a hundred different research projects at Market Decisions Research. He has more than five years of experience as a research assistant for academic and private sector research. He previously conducted research in South Africa through the University of Connecticut's Ecology Department. Why does Adam love Maine? Adam once hiked the entire Appalachian Trail and is happy to be living so close to the end of it at Mt. Katahdin. He continues to enjoy hiking, making an annual excursion to Isle au Haut, one of Maine's most remote islands.

Allison Tippery

Job Titles:
  • Qualitative Research Manager
After years of clinical research experience in mental health and emergency medicine, Allison now focuses on projects requiring qualitative research. She is passionate about listening to people's stories and learning more about their behavior, experiences, and attitudes. She enjoys digging deep and using qualitative methods for complex research questions and studies. She can look at data from a close and human perspective while enjoying the task of applying it to the big picture. Allison is a trained focus group moderator and in-depth interviewer. She handles many different types of qualitative projects from research design to analysis and reporting. She is a master at building rapport with research participants and making them feel comfortable about discussing sensitive topics. She loves working as a team, training people on new projects, and is an expert at handling many responsibilities at once. What Makes Maine Great? Ally loves that she can ride her bike to beautiful towns and villages all over Maine. Once at her destination, Ally loves to try new foods at the local restaurants and coffee shops

Brian Robertson

Job Titles:
  • Vice President, Research
Dr. Robertson provides technical leadership for all Market Decisions Research projects, including research design, survey structure, sampling methodologies, data collection methods, and analysis. He ensures that data collected is truly representative of the population of interest, advanced tools are used to get the most from the data, and the data presented is clear and actionable. Since joining Market Decisions in 2000, he has managed the company's largest and most technically demanding studies. These often include all-encompassing survey instruments, complex sampling, and large sample sizes. His work most often addresses health care and public policy issues. He managed over 20 studies on health insurance policy in nine states, which included 55,000+ resident surveys in Vermont and 30,000 in Pennsylvania. He has conducted research to improve services for vocational rehabilitation in eight states. He led studies for population health planning, surveying more than 250,000 respondents in five states.

Candace Walsh

Job Titles:
  • Research Analyst
Ms. Walsh began her career in mental health conducting assessments on individuals in acute crisis. Through this work she honed her communication style to match her audience, helping them to more clearly articulate their ideas and ensure those who could not advocate for themselves received the best care. She wrote detailed reports, advocated for appropriate placement, and coordinated with various community agencies. Working in the non-profit world sparked her interest in research and how to use it to help others. With this background, Candace joined MDR in 2019 and found an immediate fit for her skills. Detail-oriented and curious, she assists in survey programming and testing, editing, data analysis, and report writing. She is interested in all aspects of research and is keen to understand the narrative behind the data that helps to improve the lives of others. Ms. Walsh has learned the importance of listening to the message between the words and tactfully eliciting difficult information while remaining empathetic. She understands the value of using individual stories to gain an understanding about healthcare outcomes, access to care, and community needs. What keeps Candace busy outside of work? Anything outdoors. She climbs Mt. Katahdin each year and completes many other challenging hikes around the state. And like many others at MDR, she loves playing tourist in Portland and enjoying the fabulous food scene.

Cecelia Stewart

Job Titles:
  • Principal Investigator
  • Research Director
Dr. Stewart serves as principal investigator on various projects and plays an integral role in business development. Her experience with community-based participatory research, coalition building, grant management, academic research, and public health methodologies combines practice and research, allowing for balanced, data-driven decision making. Cecelia holds expertise in substance abuse treatment, drug policy, and racial equity. She works with clients to foster mutual understanding and collaboration to produce high quality reports and policy and public health recommendations. With a strong dedication to health equity, Dr. Stewart's work aims to improve health outcomes and shift policy towards restorative, sustainable changes in our healthcare landscape. What keeps Cecelia busy outside of work? When not working, Cecelia can be found with her family enjoying all that Maine has to offer. She enjoys hiking, cooking/baking, craft beer, board games, reading, Portland's wonderful restaurants, and morning walks with her dogs on Willard Beach.

Cecilia Lino

Job Titles:
  • Research Assistant and Data Collection Associate
  • Research Assistant and Data Collection Associate / Captain / Security Expert and Morale Officer
Ms. Lino conducts interviews using Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI) software, following interview protocols. She undertakes all tasks associated with producing and disseminating outgoing survey mailings. She tracks mail/paper surveys and is responsible for scanning surveys and entering data. Cecilia is a skilled translator, from Spanish to English and English to Spanish. She is a valued team member who quickly develops rapport with research participants. Cecilia is reliable and organized and works well under pressure, with or without supervision. She is conscientious and strives to do her best work at all times. Cecilia thrives as a member of the MDR team, believing that, thanks to her teammates, she learns new things every day. What makes Maine special according to Cecilia? The fairs. Cecilia enjoys going to the many fairs and festivals held in Maine, including the Fryeburg Fair, Common Ground, and the South Berwick Strawberry Festival.

Christine Cook

Job Titles:
  • Accounting Manager
Christine loves challenges while working to find more efficient ways to do things. She enjoys working with others to put new processes into place. Christine is skilled at working closely with coworkers to help them be more successful in their roles. She likes to stay busy and have a variety of tasks to work on, which she gets to do because she works mostly with small businesses. In her role as Accounting Manager, she is responsible for budgeting and forecasting to ensure we are staying on track to meet financial goals. Christine feels lucky to be working in financials because they tell the story of a company, giving her an in-depth view of all that goes on at MDR. What does Christine love about living in Maine? Christine once moved away from Maine, all the way to New Hampshire. That didn't last very long. Christine loves Fall in Maine and the added bonus of mountains, lakes, and the ocean so near. She kayaks, walks and hikes, visits farmstands to support Maine's local farmers, cross country skis, and enjoys quiet evenings at the ocean.

Curtis Mildner

Job Titles:
  • Owner
  • Principal
Mr. Mildner's passion is to help organizations make better decisions by collecting reliable data that is skillfully turned into useful information. He helps organizations use research for successful product launches, organizational re-engineering, effective advertising, and purposeful social marketing. As a senior leader of the firm, Mr. Mildner assures that all work meets client's needs, the work is technically robust, and the way the team conducts the work is consistent with the company's key values. Mr. Mildner contributes on research projects that benefit from his experience in marketing, sales, and organizational change. He has led studies to evaluate the effectiveness of patient-centered health care programs, studies to inform effective marketing programs for health care providers, and studies to more effectively segment target audiences. As a trained moderator, he enjoys conducting focus groups and has observed firsthand how insights gathered from group discussions of individual experiences add meaning to quantitative data and make desirable actions clear.

Gary Hauger

Job Titles:
  • Field Services / Call Center Manager
Mr. Hauger has more than two dozen years of experience managing all varieties of call centers. At MDR, he is focused on ensuring that the telephone interviewing staff are a model of accuracy and integrity as well as efficiency. With a dedicated team of interviewers, Mr. Hauger ensures that every team member understands the intent behind the surveys they conduct; he sets the expectation that this context will yield a more informative and complete data gathering experience. Mr. Hauger is focused on constant improvement in the call center. Through call monitoring and coaching, he ensures that data is collected responsibly and accurately. He keeps his eye on obtaining the highest quality data and leveraging techniques and technology to meet collection targets efficiently.

Hailey Marnell-Bozdag

Job Titles:
  • Research Assistant
  • Research Assistant Data Collection Associate
Mrs. Marnell-Bozdag's experience working in client-facing positions has enabled her to be flexible, adaptable, and a thoughtful communicator. She is a dedicated team player, bringing organizational talents and insight to every project she is involved with. She excels at customer service, problem solving, and applying critical thinking skills to complex situations. Mrs. Marnell-Bozdag is dedicated to listening to people's stories and learning more about behavior, experiences, and attitudes. She is skilled at developing rapport with survey respondents to uncover the meaning and intent of their responses. Hailey is excited about the opportunity to learn and grow through new professional experiences at Market Decisions Research. Why does Hailey love living in Maine? Everything! Hailey is an enthusiastic nature photographer and finds many places to practice her skills. She kayaks on the lakes and ponds in the area and hikes and bikes the various trails throughout Southern Maine.

John Charles

Job Titles:
  • Research Director
  • Data Scientist
Mr. Charles is an exacting data scientist, content to work with data of all kinds. He is the company's go-to person for complex statistical questions and assignments that require advanced analytical techniques. John has extensive knowledge and experience performing parametric and non-parametric statistical analysis, statistical modeling, predictive analytics, and big data analysis. He is skilled in the use of state-of-the-art data management and statistical analysis software including SPSS, R, and SAS, among others. While he supports a wide variety of projects with simple analysis and report preparation, John stands out for his specialized work. For the Maine Shared Needs Health Assessment and Planning Process (SHNAPP) he analyzed and reported on 161 health indicators at the state, county, and urban levels. For the City of Buffalo (NY) Youth Risk Behavior Survey, John's analyses showed a statistically significant link between academic performance and student health. For Unum, a disability insurer, he used predictive modeling to identify drivers of consumer satisfaction. Using data from the Virginia Youth Risk Behavior Survey, he segmented youth by peer crowds and identified two groups with higher rates of risky behaviors. To demonstrate the effects of implicit bias in the evaluation of judges in Massachusetts, John used regressions and identified specific demographic groups most susceptible to implicit bias. What does John do when he's not at MDR? Like his coworkers, John heads outside. He and his family love to hike, go to one of the many beautiful beaches, and travel across Maine and the world.

Katie Klinko

Job Titles:
  • Research Analyst
Ms. Klinko has a strong analytical background in economics and international politics which allows her to bring a complex understanding of economic principles and political dynamics to the realm of public health and policy research. Although new to Market Decisions Research, she has a proven history of producing high-quality research that addresses multifaceted socioeconomic issues. Her prior graduate research focused on gender-based differences in U.S. labor market outcomes due to childcare constraints and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic's restrictions on Maine's labor force. With skills including statistical modeling, data analysis, and economic forecasting, Katie is committed to delivering innovative solutions that advance public health policy initiatives. She communicates efficiently to enable productive collaboration and the seamless dissemination of research results. Her passion lies in combining the analytical with the personal to create meaningful insights and a positive impact. Why does Katie love Maine? I love living in Maine all year-round, but especially during the season of fall foliage, apple cider, and chilly nights spent around a bonfire

Nathaniel (Nat) Mildner - CFO, VP

Job Titles:
  • Chief Financial Officer
  • Vice President
Mr. Mildner manages the financial and business aspects of Market Decisions Research. He uses his business skills and natural curiosity to find ways to improve processes and procedures across specific projects as well as companywide. Nat is especially interested in how MDR can use technology to create a more efficient workplace. Nat is respected for his rapid response to client needs, his deft management of complicated projects and his interest in new approaches to our work. He coordinates the details of many of the company's most logistically complex research projects, particularly ones that combine mail and online data collection. He also leads the company's qualitative research practice-both online and in-person focus groups. Nat has coordinated over 100 successful research projects. This included an ambitious effort to quantify the state of health information technology adoption in Massachusetts. Data was collected from thousands of health care providers, consumers, and doctors and presented in a custom format to make the findings clear and accessible. To precisely track the performance of judges in Colorado he managed surveys of thousands of lawyers, court employees, plaintiffs, and defendants and presented the data using an online interactive tool. What does Nat love about living in Maine? Skiing. Nat loves to head to Sugarloaf to ski, teach his kids to ski, and spend time with his family,

Patrick Madden - President

Job Titles:
  • President
Mr. Madden provides overall leadership to MDR with a focus on exacting and innovative research methods, accurate high-quality data, and "research for good"-projects that help improve societal well-being and health. During the past 20 years, Patrick has worked closely with individuals and organizations across the U.S. to turn their ideas into research, data, and insights. He designed and led hundreds of research and evaluation projects to support data driven decision making. Patrick excels at distilling large quantities of data into clear and actionable recommendations to design, improve and evaluate public programs, policy, and marketing/communications campaigns. Patrick's work with non-profits, government agencies, health care providers, and other organizations focuses on improving overall health and social well-being and addressing issues of inequity among underserved and historically disadvantaged populations. His experience spans a wide range of topics including healthcare access, community health, product and service development, substance use and mental health, youth and adolescent health, patient experience, environmental health, and behavioral marketing and communication. Results of his work have been published in the Journal of Public Health Management & Practice, Health Education and Behavior, and Preventing Chronic Disease, among others. In addition to his role at MDR, Mr. Madden has served on the Executive Board of the New England Society for Healthcare Communications, the Insights Association New England Chapter, and the New England Association of Public Opinion Research.

Xiaolei Pan

Job Titles:
  • Senior Research Analyst
Ms. Pan leverages more than 15 years of research experience and relies on her keen technical and analytic skills to meet the needs of clients for data they can use. As a research analyst, Ms. Pan works closely with project leads. She is expert at Voxco online and telephone survey programming and is usually assigned to our most complex surveys. Xiaolei is MDR's go-to person for programming all our projects requiring paper surveys for high-speed scanning. She is fluent in the use of SPSS for analysis and is skilled at preparing reports to meet special client requirements. Her use of Tableau software allows clients to interactively conduct their own analyses of the data. Xiaolei serves as the overall project lead for all MDR's judicial evaluation projects. In this role she programs surveys, conducts analysis, and produces final reports and data compendia. Xiaolei manages ongoing mail, online and telephone satisfaction surveys for many of Market Decisions Research's projects. She also conducts analysis of a variety of projects in public health sectors, including statewide health insurance surveys and youth risk behavior evaluations. What does Xiaolei do outside of work? Like several of her coworkers, Xiaolei participates every year in the Beach to Beacon 10k. When not running, she travels all over the state, nearby Canada, and internationally to Shanghai to visit family.