Nancy Hodur, Ph.D.
Center for Social Research, Director
Nancy is the Center's director and has over 25 years of professional experience in applied research, public policy and outreach education. Prior to joining the Center, Nancy was an assistant research professor in the Department of Agribusiness and Applied Economics here at NDSU. Nancy's primary research areas include socio-economic impact assessment, community and economic development, and natural resource management. Nancy's recent efforts have focused on issues related to the rapid expansion of North Dakota's oil and gas industry including population and school enrollment projections, and the assessment of the characteristics, perceptions and intentions of the oil and gas industry workforce.
Mihaela "Ina" Cernusca, M.B.A.
ND Compass, Project Director | Center for Social Research, Research Specialist
Ina is the project director for ND Compass and a research specialist within the Center for Social Research. In her role, she leads the design and operation of the ND Compass project to ensure access to reliable, accurate and unbiased demographic and socio-economic data to support informed decision making and community engagement in North Dakota. In addition, she strives to increase awareness and understanding of ND Compass. With extensive experience in market and social research, she has participated in many projects that involved quantitative and qualitative research, grant writing, project management, and outreach/extension activities. Ina earned her MBA from the University of Missouri Columbia and worked as a marketing research specialist with the Center for Agroforestry at the University of Missouri.
Kendra Erickson-Dockter
Center for Social Research, Research Specialist
Currently, Kendra has a part-time appointment with the Center and provides support to various projects. Kendra led North Dakota Compass as the project director, from 2013 to 2019. Kendra received her Masters' degree in Sociology and is a doctoral student in Human Development at NDSU.
Jerry Dogbey-Gakpetor
Center for Social Research, Research Specialist
Jerry's background is in statistics. In his role, Jerry focuses on efficient and effective means to extract data from the Center's sources for timely updates. He writes R scripts to automate the extraction and restructuring data making them dashboard user friendly.Jerry is also involved in other projects where he puts to use his statistical knowledge and model building skills. Jerry earned his Ph.D. in Statistics from North Dakota State University. Prior to joining the Center, Jerry was a Senior Data Scientist at American Express.
Chelsey Hukriede, M.A.
Center for Social Research, Research Specialist
Currently, Chelsey is the ND Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS) Project Coordinator. In this role, she manages the operations for this state-wide public health surveillance survey, as well as data analysis and dissemination. Chelsey’s background in criminal justice and experience in social science research enables her to assist in various other projects such as lignite energy industry workforce issues and homelessness in Fargo/Moorhead.
Karen Olson
Center for Social Research, Research Specialist
In this role, Karen’s background in demographics and socioeconomics is used to facilitate the public’s access to data and information needed to make decisions, design and implement programs, and invest in communities across the state. Her efforts involve a wide range of topics including migration, characteristics of the aging population, community efforts to reduce poverty, housing needs, and the health and well-being of children and families. Karen formerly served as the Program Director for North Dakota KIDS COUNT where she worked to provide legislators, public officials, and child advocates with reliable data and tools to advance policies that benefit children and families.
Valquiria Quirino
Center for Social Research, Research Specialist
Prior to NDSU, Valquiria worked as a researcher for the Department of Forest Resources at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, and as data analyst, at John Deere. At her previous jobs, Valquiria applied geospatial and statistical methods to generate insights and solve real-world problems. Valquiria has also experience in developing and delivering training in technical fields.
Kaeleigh Schroeder, MA, MSc
Center for Social Research, Research Specialist
Prior to her role at the Center, Kaeleigh spent a decade in market research and research analyst roles, working across a variety of industries to provide analysis in areas such as customer satisfaction research, patient experience in healthcare systems, and charity mailing campaign performance. At the Center, Kaeleigh will be using her recent degree in Business Analytics from NDSU in combination with her Master’s in Sociology from the University of Manitoba to do research into COVID-19 impacts in North Dakota.
Avram Slone, M.A.
Center for Social Research, Research Specialist
Avram has previously worked as a researcher at the Alaska Justice Information Center, where he studied domestic violence and time-to-disposition delays in the court system. As an intern researcher with the Health Studies Branch of the United States Census Bureau, he helped maintain and analyze the HIV/AIDS Surveillance Data Base. Avram earned his Master’s degree in Sociology from the University of Kansas.
Kate Ulmer
Center for Social Research, Administrative Assistant | Assistant Coordinator for PRAMS (ND Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System)