We simplify the complex
We give insight into the challenging questions of today and find the breakthroughs that inform the outcomes of tomorrow.
Our Approach
We use data and research to uncover truths, identify new trends, build new narratives, and elevate the value of human experience as a driving force for change. Our approach is designed to remove bias, raise the bar in all aspects of polling, gather insights that fuel progress and give power to simple truths and shared values.
What separates us from other traditional firms is our scientific rigor, unique style, knowledgeable team, diverse experience and uncompromising principles. With PerryUndem, you will gain a humble group of experts and collaborators who insist on accuracy, reject transactional forms of interaction and seek to fuel work that leads to transformation. We are a non-partisan firm that doesn’t fit neatly under traditional labels.
Meet Our Team
We are a small, nimble team of passionate individuals looking to contribute our skills, craft, and creativity for change.
Sean Dryden is a Vice President at PerryUndem. He has been involved in public opinion research since 2008 where he worked at GQRR conducting qualitative and quantitative research for international political campaigns, non-profit organizations, and government agencies. Since 2013, Sean has led research projects at PerryUndem focused on public policy issues including health care coverage, Medicaid expansion, health equity, hunger, and higher education. He is an experienced moderator of focus groups and in-depth interviews, and regularly facilitates discussions for our non-profit clients. Sean holds a BA in International Relations from Princeton University.
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.
Olivia Ogwumike is a research analyst who joined the PerryUndem team in 2021. She has contributed to research on a broad range of public issues including, reproductive rights, gender justice, healthy equity, and racial justice. Olivia employs both qualitative and quantitative research methods to analyze data and disseminate results. She holds a BA in Psychology from Rice University, an MBA from Rice University and is currently pursuing her PhD in Public Policy and Administration from George Washington University.
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.
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.
For more than ten years, Shanelle has partnered with social justice activists, organizations, and campaigns to inspire action through storytelling and communications. In 2016, Shanelle founded the Radical Communicators Network (RadComms), a go-to hub for skills-building, values-aligned political education, and cross-movement collaboration for grassroots social justice communicators. Shanelle then developed Channel Black, a tailored training program that prepares progressive spokespeople to make critical, real-time interventions on racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia and power. In the fall of 2017, Shanelle joined The New School, a University in Manhattan as its inaugural Activist-in-Residence. Today, she is faculty there in the social justice scholarship program. She holds a degree in Journalism and New and Online Media from the Manship School of Mass Communications at Louisiana State University.
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)