Center for Social and Behavioral Research

Staff

 

Mary Losch

Mary Losch, Ph.D.

Director

mary.losch@uni.edu

Dr. Losch is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Northern Iowa (UNI) and was the Assistant Director of the Center for Social and Behavioral Research (CSBR) at UNI from 1998 to 2014. She is also an Adjunct Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Iowa College of Public Health in the Department of Community and Behavioral Health. She holds a Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Iowa.  Dr. Losch has been the Principal Investigator for numerous grants, contracts and investigations of public policy, public health and other topics.

Kyle Endres

Kyle Endres, Ph.D.

Associate Director

kyle.endres@uni.edu

Kyle Endres is Associate Director of the Center for Social and Behavioral Research and Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Northern Iowa. He received his Ph.D. in Government from the University of Texas at Austin. Prior to joining UNI, Dr. Endres was a postdoc at Duke University’s Initiative on Survey Methodology and a pre-doctoral fellow at Fordham University’s Center for Electoral Politics and Democracy.  He has considerable experience in survey design and implementation, including in the context of health and policy polling. His research has been published (or is forthcoming) in multiple peer-reviewed journals, including: the Journal of Politics, the Journal of Elections, Public Opinion & Parties, the Journal of Surgical Research, Political Research Quarterly, American Politics Research, Research & Politics, and PS: Political Science & Politics.

Erin Heiden

Erin O. Heiden, MPH, Ph.D.

Assistant Director

erin.heiden@uni.edu

Erin Heiden is an Assistant Director at the CSBR. Her education includes a Master of Public Health degree and Ph.D. in Community and Behavioral Health from the University of Iowa with an emphasis in health communication and occupational injury prevention research. Erin’s research interests include evaluation and policy research, psycho-social factors and effects of injury, and injuries among individuals with disabilities.  She leads several CSBR projects focused on STEM evaluation and monitoring in the state.

Ki Park

Ki Park, Ph.D.

Assistant Director

ki.park@uni.edu 

Ki Park is an Assistant Director at the CSBR. He holds an M.A. in Health Education and Promotion from UNI and a Ph.D. in Community and Behavioral Health with an emphasis in health communication from the University of Iowa. He has been part of the CSBR research team as a student research assistant before joining as a staff member in 2013.  Dr. Park leads CSBR projects focused on understanding gambling outcomes and treatment, analysis of complex data and use of social media and organic data as complements to traditional quantitative and qualitative methods.

Rod Muilenburg

Rod Muilenburg, B.L.S.

Data Collection and Grants Manager

rod.muilenburg@uni.edu 

Rod Muilenburg is the Data Collection and Grants Manager at the CSBR. He graduated from UNI with a B.L.S in 2000 and joined the CSBR as a staff member in 2001. Rod coordinates and supervises the day-to-day activities in the telephone interviewing lab. He oversees WinCATI operations and programs questionnaires in Ci3. Rod is also the Project Coordinator for the Iowa Barriers to Prenatal Care Project and the Iowa Gambling Treatment Outcomes Study and coordinates logistics for projects involving large self-administered mailback surveys.

Tom Turner

Thomas M. Turner, B.A.

Information Technology Specialist

thomas.turner@uni.edu

Since graduating from UNI in 1994 with a B.A. in Computer Science, Tom Turner has been responsible for all aspects of technology at the CSBR, from maintaining the network servers and PC workstations to coding programs in Ci3, C/C++, ECMAScript, and SPSS.  Tom assists with dataset development and testing and development of information and data security policies.

Headshot

Hillary Wehe

Senior Research Scientist

hillary.wehe@uni.edu

Hillary Wehe is a Senior Research Scientist at the CSBR. She earned a Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology from Colorado State University. Prior to joining CSBR, she was an Assistant Professor at Upper Iowa University. Dr. Wehe’s research has been published in outlets including the Quarterly Journal of Experimental PsychologyNeuropsychologiaTeaching of Psychology and the Journal of Neuroscience. In addition to her academic publications, she is a co-author for several textbooks, including Introduction to PsychologyCognitive Psychologyand Personality Psychology.

Her work at CSBR focuses on quantitative and qualitative research methodology and analysis for a variety of projects in the areas of STEM education, public health, and public policy. 

Justine Radunzel

Justine Radunzel

Senior Research Scientist

justine.radunzel@uni.edu

Justine Radunzel is a part-time Senior Research Scientist at the CSBR. She earned a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics with a Statistics emphasis from the University of Arizona. Prior to joining UNI, she was a Research Scientist at ACT, Inc. and at the University of Iowa in the Biostatistics Department. She contributes her quantitative research expertise to multiple projects at the CSBR.

Mitch Avery

Mitchell Avery, M.P.P.

Project Manager

mitchell.avery@uni.edu

Mitch has worked as a project manager at CSBR since 2020 and as project coordinator since 2014. He received his B.A. in Economics in 2010 and his Masters of Public Policy in 2013, both from the University of Northern Iowa. He was part of the CSBR research team as a student Research Assistant before joining as a full-time staff member in 2013.  Mitch provides support for multiple projects and plays a central role in the ongoing CAPP and Tobacco Quitline evaluations and provides expertise and support for projects utilizing online data collection. 

Lisa Green

Lisa Green, M.S.

Project Coordinator

lisa.green@uni.edu

Lisa Green is a project coordinator at the CSBR. Her education includes a B.A. in Geography and Land Studies from Central Washington University and an M.S. in Geography from Utah State University. Lisa worked as a project coordinator for a National Science Foundation graduate training program before joining the CSBR, where she contributes to multiple program evaluations.

Alyssa McCoy

Alyssa McCoy

Project Coordinator

alyssa.mccoy@uni.edu

Alyssa McCoy joined the CSBR as a student telephone interviewer in 2017, worked up to a lab facilitator in 2018, and became a project coordinator in 2021. She continues to assist with the supervision of telephone interviewers and operational activities in the telephone interviewing lab; however, she has also taken on much larger roles in the Iowa Barriers to Prenatal Care project and the Kern evaluation project.

Jess Erhardt

Jess Erhardt, LMSW

Project Coordinator

jess.ehrhardt@uni.edu

Jess Ehrhardt is a project coordinator at the CSBR. She initially joined the CSBR as a student telephone interviewer in 2018 and later became a full-time staff member in 2021. Jess received both her B.A. in Social Work in 2020 and her Masters of Social Work in 2021 from the University of Northern Iowa. In addition to supporting multiple projects, she also coordinates simulated client calls for the Problem Gambling and Substance Use Treatment Evaluation project.

Malakai Calhoun

Malakai Calhoun

Assistant Field Supervisor

calhoumab@uni.edu

Malakai Calhoun joined the CSBR as a student employee in 2010 and became a staff member in 2018. He assists with the supervision of telephone interviewers and operational activities in the telephone interviewing lab. That includes facilitating the hiring and training of student telephone interviewers, monitoring interviewer productivity, and troubleshooting the WinCATI software and other interviewing technology.

EMERITUS

Gene M. Lutz, Ph.D.

Director Emeritus

gene.lutz@uni.edu

Dr. Lutz is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of Northern Iowa (UNI), and was Director of the Center for Social and Behavioral Research (CSBR) at UNI from 1988 to 2014.  He was also an Adjunct Clinical Professor at the University of Iowa College of Public Health Department of Community and Behavioral Health.  He holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from Iowa State University.  Dr. Lutz has been the Principal Investigator for over 70 studies of public health and other topics, and the administrator for scores of additional studies.