The evidence you need. The insights you didn’t expect
We ask the questions other researchers aren’t asking — and uncover surprising answers that might just change your whole way of thinking about the issues you seek to understand.
What do people really think — and what could that mean for all of us?
At PerryUndem, we believe the most important insights generally aren’t found in the most obvious questions. So we go beyond asking where people stand today. We ask what they value, what they hope for, what kind of future they’re working toward. The results we get don’t just describe the present. They point toward what’s possible for the future.
Our approach is rigorous, nonpartisan, and unconventional by design. We ask unexpected questions that invite people to step outside familiar narratives, think freshly, and reveal the hopes and shared values that live beneath the surface of opinion — including the surprising places where common ground emerges.
We’ll work with you as partners and close collaborators, with humility, genuine curiosity, and a commitment to research that means something — not just for your work, but for the people you serve and the future you’re helping to shape.
Meet Our Team
We are a small, nimble team of passionate individuals looking to contribute our skills, craft, and creativity for change.
Naomi Mulligan Kolb is Managing Director and Senior Vice President at PerryUndem Research / Communication. She began conducting public opinion research in 2008 while studying in Washington, DC at UCLA’s Center for Politics and Public Policy. Naomi leads the implementation and supervision of survey fielding and qualitative research activities across PerryUndem. She is also an experienced focus group moderator and in-depth interviewer specializing in facilitating discussions on sensitive topics among women, parents, young adults, people with serious illness, and Pan-Asian populations among others. She holds a BA in Sociology from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Duncan Gans is a research analyst and has worked at PerryUndem since June 2019. He has contributed to research on a broad range of public issues, including reproductive rights, gender equity, public health, and climate-related displacement. Duncan employs qualitative research methods to analyze results and leverages his computer science degree to employ in-depth quantitative analysis such as decision trees and cluster analysis. Before joining PerryUndem, Duncan worked as a Breckenridge Research Fellow, where he studied midterm elections in the United States and Latin America. He holds a BA in Political Science and Computer Science from Bowdoin College.
Michael Perry is a partner at PerryUndem. Before co-founding PerryUndem in 2013, Mike was a partner for 16 years at the national polling firm Lake Research Partners. Through public opinion research, Mike seeks to bring the voice of those most affected by today’s issues into the policymaking process. He works mainly with non-profit organizations and foundations and has briefed Members of Congress, White House officials, state elected officials, journalists, activists, and others on his findings. He works on a wide variety of social issues but specializes in health care research. Mike holds a Master’s Degree from the University of Southern California.
Tresa Undem is a partner and co-founder of PerryUndem. She’s conducted public opinion research for 20 years on behalf of non-profit organizations, foundations, news organizations, and government agencies. She studies opinion on many policy issues and leads the firm’s practice on attitudes and experiences related to gender equity. Grounded in listening, Tresa explores untold stories and perspectives, often by asking questions that no one else asks. Tresa has briefed numerous state and federal policymakers on her work, including members of Congress, White House officials, and Department of Health and Human Services leadership. Tresa holds a Master’s Degree from the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. She is a member of the American Association of Public Opinion Research, and has been a reviewer, presenter, and discussant at its national conferences.
Kathleen Perry is a Vice President at PerryUndem. She has a decade of experience conducting public opinion research on behalf of foundations, non-profit organizations, and government agencies. Kathleen applies her expertise in both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies across a range of social issues, including public health, health equity, food security, and environmental justice. Through methodological rigor and data storytelling, she strives to elevate the voices of those often left out of policymaking. Kathleen worked at PerryUndem from 2014 to 2019 and rejoined the team in 2024 after spending five years conducting opinion research internationally on behalf of the U.S. State Department. She holds a BA from the University of Maryland and an MA from Johns Hopkins University.
Claire Perry is a research analyst at PerryUndem. Prior to joining PerryUndem, she was an analyst at a global public opinion research consultancy where she worked with both domestic and multinational clients across industries, including government, non-profit, and corporate sectors. Working in both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies, she has contributed to research on issues such as public health, climate justice, emerging technologies, and racial equity. She holds a BA in Political Science from the University of Vermont.
Meet Some of Our Partners
Our model is collaborative. We construct our research teams based on the needs of our clients, often by bringing in partners who have diverse lived experiences and areas of expertise.
Shanelle Matthews collaborates with social justice activists, organizations, and campaigns to inspire action and build narrative power for social justice and liberation. She recently completed her tenure as the Movement for Black Lives communications director. She founded Radical Communicators Network (RadComms), a global community of practice for social movement communications workers, and is a former faculty member in Resistance Narratives at The New School. Shanelle is a full-time Distinguished Lecturer at City College at the City University of New York, where she teaches Narrative Power in the Black Radical Tradition and Rhetoric of Liberation: The Role of Narrative Power in Contemporary Movements. She is co-editor of a forthcoming anthology that details world-building narrative campaigns and strategies led by social movement communications workers in the 21st century.
Eesha Pandit is co-founder of CAIP, where she brings over a decade of thought leadership and strategic communications around progressive policy. She has led policy, program, and communications work in innovative and groundbreaking ways that have shaped national and international movements for human rights, reproductive justice, and violence against women. Eesha brings expertise and experience in hard policy analysis and the organizing and coalition-building required to effect policy change. She is a founding member of the Crunk Feminist Collective and South Asian Youth in Houston Unite (SAYHU). She is a queer South Asian immigrant based in Houston, Texas, and brings her expertise as a creative strategist, respected thinker, and writer to work for CAIP’s partners. She is a graduate of Mount Holyoke College and the University of Chicago, where she studied political philosophy. Eesha loves hosting long, leisurely brunches with friends, listening to political podcasts nonstop, and any afternoon spent walking through a museum.
Verónica Bayetti Flores is co-founder of CAIP, where she helps our partners to think big about their policy change goals. She has led national policy and movement building work on the intersections of immigrants’ rights, health care access, young parenthood, police accountability, and LGBTQ liberation. Verónica has worked with national, state, and local organizations to increase access to contraception and abortion, fought to reduce the harms of policing and immigration detention, and demanded access to safe public space for queer youth of color. Verónica holds a Master’s degree in Public Health from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. She is a New York City-based queer, immigrant Latina who brings her experience as a policy analyst, writer, speaker, facilitator, and strategic communicator to CAIP. Verónica loves plants, cooking elaborate meals for her most beloved people, and the daily artistic practice of getting dressed.
A lot builds off of the content knowledge that underlies everything, both in terms of policies and in terms of understanding a lot of the issues and nuances affecting underserved populations. Their depth of understanding of those policy issues is unique and really allows for them to do this work in terms of understanding how to recruit and find those populations.
– Samantha Artiga, KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation)