Portland, Oregon


Steve Rider, Ph.D. is the President of Pacific Research & Evaluation.  He earned his doctorate in Psychology at the University of Arizona, and has been involved in research and program evaluation for more than 20 years.  Dr. Rider has directed a wide range of local and state projects, as well as studies funded by a variety of federal agencies, including the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Departments of Education, Health and Human Services, and Justice.  He has authored journal articles and book chapters, and has presented numerous papers at regional, national, and international scientific conferences.  Dr. Rider has taught college courses in statistics and research methods, and has expertise in qualitative and quantitative methods, measure development, survey research, and multivariate statistical analysis.

Reed Mueller, Ph.D. is the Vice President of Pacific Research & Evaluation.  He earned his doctorate in Clinical Psychology at Brigham Young University and is a licensed psychologist in Oregon.  During his doctoral training, he focused upon clinical research, which culminated in his dissertation research on the development of the Outcome Questionnaire, a valid and reliable measure utilized by major insurance carriers nationwide to track interpersonal, emotional, and behavioral changes over the course of psychotherapy and counseling endeavors.  Additionally, he completed an internship at the Portland VA Medical Center, and a two-year post-doctoral residency at Oregon Health Sciences University (OHSU), both in Clinical Psychology.  Throughout his training, his clinical caseload included clients across the life span: from children struggling with the many issues of childhood and dysfunctional families to the elderly dealing with end-of-life issues.  Dr. Mueller has directed evaluation projects in a variety of domains.  He developed client outcome measurement tools for multiple prevention programs, and constructed a corresponding electronic data collection system for the Clark County (WA) Dept. of Community Services and Corrections.  He has evaluated anti-tobacco educational interventions for the American Cancer Society, and has designed outcome and client satisfaction instruments for parenting classes conducted by ParentCare, Inc.  Dr. Mueller has published book chapters and peer-reviewed journal articles on the topics of ethical assessment and evaluation techniques, evaluation of counseling progress, evaluation of clinical outcomes in experimental central nervous system tumor treatment, and preventative care programs for at-risk elderly.  Dr. Mueller has expertise in areas such as measure development, logic models, human factors in research, focus group techniques, client outcomes, surveying methodology, and structural equation modeling.


Kristi Zimmerman, Ph.D. is a Research Associate at Pacific Research & Evaluation.  She earned her doctorate in Applied Psychology from Portland State University in June of 2009.  Ms. Zimmerman previously worked as a post doctoral research associate at Portland State and was heavily involved in the development and evaluation of a large-scale intervention designed to increase support for work-life balance and improve employee health outcomes.  She has been conducting applied research for 5 years and has extensive experience in the development of various data collection instruments including interviews, focus groups, and surveys as well as the corresponding analysis of such qualitative and quantitative data.


Kim Stevens, BA is a Research Assistant at Pacific Research & Evaluation.  She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Anthropology from Bowdoin College.  Ms. Stevens' background includes experience conductin semi-structured interviews, performing computer and library literature searches, developing formal and informal presentations, and writing research reports.  During her time at PRE, Ms. Stevens has collected and evaluated qualitative data from more than 50 focus groups, developed and monitored data collection tools and procedures, conducted statistical analyses of quantitative data using Access, Excel, and SPSS, and written evaluation reports.  Ms. Stevens is currently working with the Tigard-Tualatin School District to evaluate its Safe Schools/Healthy Students Initiative and with the Portland Public School district to conduct an evaluation of its Alternative School system.


Victoria Prescott, BS is a Research Assistant at Pacific Research & Evaluation.  She earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology and Communications from University of Pittsburgh in 2008.  During her undergraduate training, Ms. Prescott worked in University of Pittsburgh's Social Health & Psychology Lab for three and a half years.  Her lab experience included recruiting participants, running experiments, conducting interviews, collecting and entering data, and participating in formal lab meetings.  Ms. Prescott has also been awarded two Honors College research stipend for independent research projects, and a scholarship through Pitt's psychology department for her notable record in the field of psychological research.  Since graduating college, Ms. Prescott has volunteered at Portland State University as a Lab Assistant in the Center for Work-Family Stress and Health Lab.  Moreover, she has completed an intensive internship at Kronos, Inc Talent Management Division in Beaverton, Oregon, in which she aided in the construction of assessments, performed market research, entered and cleaned data and developed data bases.  Ms. Prescott began working for Pacific Research & Evaluation in June 2010.


Silver Spring, Maryland

Michelle Damaré, MA is a Research Associate at Pacific Research & Evaluation.  She earned a Master's Degree in Psychology from the Catholic University of America, and has 17 years of experience in the area of program evaluation.  Ms. Damaré previously worked in the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Child and Adolescent Disorders Research Branch, where she contributed to studies of violence prevention, antisocial behavior, and at-risk youth.  Ms. Damaré has worked on a variety of evaluation projects, that have served children from Pre-K through high school, including efforts to reduce alcohol and drug abuse, decrease youth violence, and improve outcomes for students with severe behavioral problems.  At PRE, Ms. Damaré has managed the evaluation of the Washington DC Public Schools Safe Schools/ Healthy Students Initiative, the Burlington, Vermont Safe Schools/Healthy Students Initiative, and several projects for the Latin American Youth Center and Options Charter School in Washington, DC. Currently, she is leading the evaluation of the Montgomery County Smaller Learning Communities grant and the Albemarle/Charlottesville Safe Schools Healthy Students Initiative, in addition to working with other local organizations, such as the National School Board Association, in their evaluation efforts.  Ms. Damaré has expertise in evaluation plan design, survey development, data management, data quality assurance, data analysis, reporting, and result presentation.


West Hartford, Connecticut

Rachel Atwater, MSW is a Research Associate at Pacific Research & Evaluation.  She earned her Masters in Social Work from Portland State University, and has more than six years of experience working on the evaluation of projects related to early childhood education, career development, school violence prevention, child health, and alternative youth education.  Ms. Atwater has expertise in designing measurement tools and data collection plans, gathering and analyzing quantitative and qualitative data, monitoring data collection, and writing technical reports.  She is currently leading the evaluation of the Rochester City School District Safe Schools/Healthy Students Initiative.


Marietta, Georgia

Carol Thurman, Ph.D. is a Research Associate at Pacific Research and Evaluation.  She earned her doctorate in Educational Policy Studies with a concentration in Research, Measurement, and Statistics from Georgia State University.  Dr. Thurman's professional experience includes teaching internationally and state-side at the high school and middle school level, project management for an educational corporation, teaching university research courses, and serving as a research specialist at the university and school district levels.  Dr. Thurman serves as a proposal reviewer for the American Educational Research Association and is a quality assurance team member for the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Council on Accreditation and School Improvement (SACS CASI).  Dr. Thurman has directed a wide range of school district projects and has extensive experience in the development of various data collection instruments in the corresponding analysis of qualitative and quantitative data.