Maria D. Perez
Professional Experience
Quantitative Researcher, Graduate Research Assistant
University of Southern California
08/2020 - Ongoing
Designed and executed a cross-country A/B test that increased the subscription of local politicians to a NGO’s newsletter.
Developed the statistical analysis of public opinion estimates by running hierarchical multilevel models with the R package lme4 using complex survey and demographic data.
Matched, cleaned and managed sensitive data from the cross-national European Value Survey database and web scraped contact details other official European statistical data sources to feed into the hierarchical multilevel models.
Generated small-area poststratification frames (weights) using census data and the R package anesrake.
Designed and implemented a cross-national survey on political elites’ attitudes towards environmental policies with embedded experiments in Qualtrics.
UX Researcher & Market Research
Ableton, Inc
May 2021 - August 2021
Designed and executed a research project to enhance the reach of Ableton’s software by identifying points of market entry, and identified customer pain points to enhance user experience.
Informing the advertising product strategy after completing a competitive analysis and benchmarking report and identified how increase the performance and traffic of Ableton’s website.
Collaborated with the design and product team in creating a mix method research framework to improve users’ engagement with the product. This included defining questions for a survey methodology and in-depth interviews, and developing quantitative measurements for usability testing.
Executive Associate Public Affairs and Strategic Corporate Communications
Estudio de Comunicación, Spain
10/2017 – 06/2018
Leading consultant in the coordination and development of the firm’s new public affairs department.
Generating and implementing corporate political strategies, stakeholder mapping and policy analysis.
Coordinated local grassroots activity and grassroots mobilization as part of political campaigns.
Design and data analysis from focus groups with clients’ stakeholders (i.e. consumers and employees)
Associate Public Affairs
KREAB Worldwide, Spain
12/2014 – 09/2017
Political strategy consultant for international clients from private and non-profit sectors.
Planned and implemented public affairs strategies to increase awareness of key areas of the client's business to its socio-political stakeholders.
Researcher at the KREAB Research Unit for socio-economic studies on trade and business growth in Spain.
Designing, implementing and analyzing corporate reputation and perception studies.
Public Relations and Communication Intern
Ministry of Education and Culture, Australia
03/2012 – 08/2012
Assisted in the preparation and development of the Spanish Ministry of Education Language Assistant Program for 2013-2014.
Logistic support in the implementation of public relations initiatives at the Ministry.
Created and delivered press and media content.
Implemented a cultural collaboration agreement between the Ministry and RMIT University to foster a Spanish Learning Program.
Teaching Experience
2019
International Relations
University of Southern California
Undergraduate Course
2020
Political
Economy
University of Southern California
Undergraduate Course
2021
Advanced Business Strategy
University of Southern California, Marshall School of Business
MBA
2022
Political Institutions
University of Southern California
Undergraduate Course