Assistant Design

Alexandra Leigh Shankster, Ph.D.

**** **** **, **********, ** 20010

Mobile: 619-***-****

Email: **********@*****.***

SUMMARY: My primary skills are in research design, qualitative and quantitative social

science research methods, survey design and analysis, behavioral economics, program evaluation,

program management, written and oral presentations. Experience includes 10 years of

progressively responsible research and analysis.

Clearance: Top Secret

Proficient in STATA, R, Excel; Experience with SPSS, MySQL, Python.

WORK EXPERIENCE

Booz Allen Hamilton-McLean, VA 7/2010-present

Senior Consultant, Advanced Analytics

• Serve as task lead for projects developing and testing advanced econometric techniques,

decision models for Department of Defense.

• Develop survey methodologies for cross-cultural populations for Department of State.

• Design sampling plan for Defense survey.

• Manage coding and analysis of qualitative focus group transcripts, coding of quantitative

surveys, and develop measures of inter-coder reliability.

• Clean and analyze multi-national datasets.

• Provide analytical support on Department of State survey projects.

• Provide methodological support on cross-cultural survey imputation project.

• Identify and serve as point of contact for subject matter experts in Defense survey on

Afghanistan

• Write marketing papers and literature reviews on socio-cultural research methodologies,

terrorism research, and research design for diverse audiences.

• Design research plans to test for effects of program changes.

Legislative Analyst’s Office-Sacramento, CA 9/2009 – 6/2010

Fiscal and Policy Analyst, K-12 Education

• Served as expert on student assessments, education technology, state education data systems,

charter school performance, teacher credentialing and personnel policies for California

Legislature.

• Wrote policy briefs and memoranda making recommendations to Legislature. Gave oral

briefings to members of the Legislature, advocacy groups, and parent organizations.

• Developed, administered, and analyzed survey regarding district funding choices to

determine impact of changes in funding.

• Conducted site visits to charter schools and traditional schools.

• Performed qualitative interviews of stakeholders.

• Summarized and disseminated research and results of analyses to Legislature, advocacy

groups and school districts.

University of California-DC 9/2008 – 9/2009

President's Fellow

• Conducted qualitative interviews with current and former Congress members and staff

regarding the legislative bargaining process.

• Supervised 90 undergraduate research projects, aiding in students' selection of topic,

hypothesis formulation, background research, data analyses, and presentation of conclusions .

University of California-San Diego 6/2004 – 8/2008

Research Assistant

• Designed and implemented behavioral experiments regarding citizens' political and economic

decision-making for a study funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF).

• Designed and implemented behavioral experiments to examine trust, communication and

public goods contributions in ethnically heterogeneous and homogenous groups.

• Wrote and edited several chapters for an NSF-funded book regarding US political parties.

• Created working datasets of Israeli Knesset and U.S. Senate roll call votes. Provided

statistical analyses of data and background research for NSF-funded project on the power of

political parties in leading democracies.

• Aided research team in designing and administering survey examining consumers' product

expertise and choices.

California Institute of Technology-President's Office 1/2003 – 5/2004

Research Assistant

• Performed statistical analysis of data concerning student diversity, matriculation and

graduation rates. Created reports presenting the analyses and conclusions on behalf of the

President's Office.

Washington University-Saint Louis 9/1998 - 6/2002

Research Assistant

• Conducted economic games (behavioral experiments) and participant interviews, recruited

study participants. Coded and organized data from economic fieldwork in Kenya and the

United States.

• Assisted in NSF-funded anthropological research of the entrance of Orma in Kenya into the

market economy

• Charted kinship of the Orma and surrounding ethnic groups

• Analyzed qualitative interviews of Kenyans to determine political structure, economic norms

of behavior

• Assisted in fieldwork in rural Missouri for project comparing cross-cultural norms of fairness

and trust

• Conducted onsite qualitative interviews with spousal caretakers for an NIH-funded study on

resources used or desired by those caring for patients suffering from Parkinson's disease and

strokes.

EDUCATION

University of California-San Diego 9/2004 - 6/2009

PhD, Political Science GPA: 3.9/4.0

Dissertation Title: Party Effects in the House and Senate.

Coursework included several quarters of research design and methods. Instructed undergraduate

courses in statistics, game theory, racial politics, public policy and Congress. Dissertation

includes parametric and non-parametric analysis of roll call votes, member ideology and pork in

Congress, qualitative interviews with Hill members and staff.

California Institute of Technology-Pasadena 9/2002 - 6/2004

MS, Economics

GPA: 3.7/4.0

Coursework included game theory, econometrics and statistics, mathematical and substantive

political science, microeconomic and auction theory, mechanism and survey design.

Washington University-Saint Louis 9/1997 - 5/2001

BA, Cultural Anthropology and Economics GPA: 3.5/4.0

PROFESSIONAL PUBLICATIONS

2006. “Studying Statewide Political Campaigns” with R. Michael Alvarez in Capturing

Campaign Effects, Henry E. Brady and Richard Johnston, eds. University of Michigan Press.

2008. “Voting Power and the Electoral College of the United States” in The Political Economy of

Democracy and Tyranny, Norman Schofield, ed., pp. 251-262. Munich: Oldenbourg.

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