Beth M. Duckles, Ph.D.

I help research teams do mixed-methods research

and design useful assessment tools.

My goal is to help you address research questions that your existing data isn’t able to answer, to get a handle on the topics that are hard to measure and make you confident in your findings.

Sample research projects

• Harassment in Virtual Reality (VR)

• Stakeholder research on AI Ethics 

• Service provision for medical doctors in rural settings

• Setting green building standards

• Data sharing standards for electricity data

• Assessing the impact of collaborative workshops.  

Why Work with me?

I was trained as a mixed-methods social scientist with a Ph.D. in sociology and a slate of stats classes under my belt. I’ve taught and used qualitative research and design research skills in academia and industry and I’ve worked across multiple types of organizations from startups to government agencies to social impact groups. I’m up for whatever problems you’re grappling with.

My approach to mixed-methods research is practical and collaborative. I believe you should pick the methods that give you the data you need. We shouldn’t do research that we don’t have a use for. I know you have challenging questions and together we will design research that is doable given your research questions, budget and time frame. 

I’m comfortable doing the research myself, working on a team or coaching you and your team to do the research yourself. I’m a natural collaborator and teacher and I love learning new things.   

What we can do together

• Develop stakeholder engagement research processes

• Mixed-methods research design and scoping

• Professional development workshops on research skills

  • Skills for interviewing and facilitating focus groups

  • Design research (journey maps, personas, intercepts)

  • Survey design

  • Research scoping and design

• Scope and conduct research projects that are complex or challenging.

• Research coaching on existing projects.

• Research skills assessment

• Develop qualitative code books

• Facilitate cross-disciplinary workshops

• White Papers

Testimonials

“Beth herself has a vast and deep range of skills — from organizational sociology and research, to pedagogy and strategy — coupled with a rare gift for empowering leadership. Not only does Beth make turning her own expertise into solutions seem effortless, but through her example, she continually inspires all collaborators to do the same for themselves and others, exponentially amplifying her contribution to the community. I would whole-heartedly recommend Beth for any position that needs a problem-solving powerhouse with self-proliferating superpowers.”

Borhane Blili-Hamelin, Ph.D., Accountability Case Labs

"Beth was incredibly helpful in guiding my approach to assessment. As a biologist, I had no familiarity with disciplinary guidelines in a social context, and qualitative research in particular was quite intimidating. Beth’s expert advice allowed me to refine our questions, diversify our methods, explore our data efficiently, and create meaningful reports with confidence.”

Karen Word Ph.D. Post Doctoral Scholar, UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine

”Beth Duckles is one of those amazing humans that you just want to do all the things with! I have worked with her for the past year, first in a cohort of academics exploring "open" scholarship, and since then as an active participant and workshop facilitator in Open Post Academics (aka OPA), which she founded early in 2020. Her zones of brilliance encompass community building (OPA includes a diverse group of people with academic expertise in wide variety of fields), facilitating workshops and training sessions (she listens really well, and also ensures that all who want can engage and participate), and leads with a commitment to inclusion and collaboration. She is also gifted in terms of insights about what makes individual people tick - and how to balance multiple needs and goals. Personally, she has been instrumental in furthering my own practice of developing inclusive pedagogy tools - I work with a diverse group of students (with and without disabilities), and am having great success with an adaptation of her Zoom+Google Docs workshop model.

Sara Schley, Ph.D. Director of Learning Services, Georgia Institute of Technology

"Beth is extraordinarily skilled at taking mushy, messy qualitative data and turning it into something useful and that you actually want to base your decisions on. She's a savant in all aspects of running a research study and then very capable of structuring the results to make them most applicable to the client. And there's more - Beth is a lovely person who genuinely cares about the people she works with and able to focus on what's going to help them reach their goals.”

Jessica Outlaw, VR/AR Behavioral Scientist and Experience Researcher, The Extended Mind

“Beth and I worked together on a complicated and inspiring project that involved conducting interviews and observations with a highly vulnerable group of people in their workplaces. I asked Beth to work with me because I needed a combination of different skills: warm social skills that put people at ease, critical thinking that analyzes the juxtaposition of context, what people say, what people do, and social structures, as well as a brilliant mind. Beth managed to deliver it all and I would work with her again in a heartbeat :)”

Nazima Kadir, Ph.D. Principal, The October Anthropologist

“Beth was great at teaching me and my teammates a host of qualitative research skills, in particular how to analyze and make meaning out of complex data. I was impressed at the way she guided us through synthesis so that rather than feeling like work, it was fun and discovery-based. Beth helped us see the many sides of our data and grapple with how to reconcile them.”

Jake Sullivan, Service Design Researcher, Nike HR

“She is a highly skilled interviewer and facilitator who leads with an enormous amount of empathy and kindness. Her workshops empower people who are feeling vulnerable and uncertain to express themselves and explore new opportunities without fear. Many participants leave her workshops feeling new hope about the possibilities before them, in no small part due to Beth’s ability to both support and facilitate discovery of new career paths and ways to communicate who they are and what they can do. She is also an expert connector who is always looking for ways to build bridges between people. I can’t recommend her highly enough for any role that is looking for an incredibly adept communicator, facilitator, and community builder.”

Abby Bajuniemi, Ph.D. Principal Researcher, IxD