Barbara is a true Business Visionary. (That’s a VP around here.) Since 2005, she has designed, recruited, led and analyzed qualitative research and guided our client partners on how best to apply the rich insights she so masterfully gleans. From 48-hour ethnographies, to new product play parties, to virtual journaling, Barbara has a gift for leveraging unique research methods to match consumers’ lifestage with clients’ informational needs.
As a core member of Smarty Pants’ leadership team, Barbara establishes, leads and grows relationships with many of the agency’s flagship clients. She also serves as Smarty Pants’ Head of Qualitative Practices responsible for elevating the organization’s qualitative research. The position includes establishing and standardizing qual best practices, helping teams push qualitative research into more innovative territories and ensuring Smarty Pants remains an industry-leading qualitative provider.
Barbara’s expertise lies in both in-person and virtual qual research. She is a highly-relatable moderator and ethnographer with great intuition and a natural ability to connect no matter the topic. From riding roller coasters with kids at their favorite amusement parks, to meticulously dissecting social media user interfaces with Millennials at their kitchen table, to exploring social determinants of health with seniors at community centers, Barbara makes it her business to creatively study consumers where the answers lie. In fact, there might be no one more willing than Barbara to do whatever it takes to unearth rich insights.
Barbara is a RIVA-certified moderator with intensive training in the theory and practice of special tools and techniques of qualitative research. She also holds a certification in Advanced Moderator Techniques. She has logged more than 10,000 hours of in-person research around the globe and has the tools and experience to connect with people across ages, cultures and subject matter. Research participants love her, and so do Smarty Pants clients.
Over the past 20 years at Smarty Pants, Barbara has led countless youth-and family-focused qualitative initiatives for clients such as Meta, Kraft Heinz, Unilever, FDA, The Ad Council, Cartoon Network, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Schleich, Mars, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and Kimberly Clark. She has considerable insight into the lives, lifestyles, preferences and behaviors of Gen Alpha through Gen X.
Barbara began her research career as a recruiter and consultant at a qualitative research firm in Stamford, CT. There, she grew to become a master of identifying quality research respondents and ensuring successful fieldwork for clients and participants.
Barbara is a graduate of Boston University, where she holds a Bachelor of Arts in psychology. More recently, she completed continuing education certification from Harvard Business School Online.
When not on the road, Barbara can be found either enjoying the beaches in sunny Myrtle Beach, SC, or strolling along the Potomac in Washington, D.C. She is the proud mother of an adult son who recently completed his surgical residency.
