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Elehie Natalie Skoczylas, vice president for international programs at QEV Analytics, has over 25 years experience in international opinion research and communications.
She has designed and managed single and multi-country projects, using a wide range of methodologies -- surveys, focus group discussions, and in-depth interviews. Her analysis of survey and focus group data yield
empirical documentation on opinion and communications environments and quantified indicators measuring program effectiveness. She developed and put in place a global research service for an international foundation making opinion research an integral part of assistance programs
in the area of democratization and governance. To empirically examine the process of democratization and document the extent of political freedom in a country, she introduced the first-ever exit poll in Ukraine in 1998, successfully predicting the results of the parliamentary
election. A year later was a lead analyst for the exit poll for Ukraine’s presidential election.
She has worked in countries of widely differing levels of political and economic development, representing a diverse range of social, economic and political systems. In the conduct of projects, she collaborates with
professionals in other countries, provides methodological and management training as necessary, and uses a systematic approach to evaluate the research environment. For example, on behalf of the U.S. government and international foundations she identified and assessed managerial
and opinion research capabilities in Caribbean countries, Portugal, Turkey, Kazakstan, Ukraine, Moldova and Ghana.
On behalf of the U.S. government, international organizations and foundations, she analyzed the opinion and communications environments in Canada, Europe, Central Asia, the Caribbean, and northern Africa. Illustrative
of her work are analyses of elite and public opinion of:
- political and economic integration in Western Europe; free trade in EU member states and Canada
- national security issues in the Scandinavian countries, Great Britain, Canada, Greece, Turkey, and Ukraine
- developmental issues in the Caribbean countries, Portugal, and Turkey; secularism and democracy in Turkey.
To identify factors which contribute to and impede democratization and the emergence of market economies, she analyzed opinion environments and communications trends in Ukraine, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Kazakstan and
Kyrgyzstan, focusing on privatization, foreign aid and investment, communications, and the organization of a civic society.
Her analyses of opinion environments were used to develop U.S. government public diplomacy strategies, to prepare Presidential trips and summit meetings, and to review U.S. government funded-programs. For example,
- assessed the opinion environment for President Clinton's visit to Ukraine (May 1995), President Bush's trip to Turkey (June 1991), and President Reagan’s trip to Canada (1985)
- evaluated the proposed communications strategy for the 1990 Uruguay Talks
- examined the Caribbean’s public receptivity to foreign investment and their informational needs (1980/1981).
During the Persian Gulf War, she prepared estimates of public support for U.S. policy initiatives in West Europe, Turkey, and Canada. After the demise of the Soviet Union, she analyzed the extent of public and elite
support in Ukraine for such U.S. policy initiatives as the Partnership for Peace, the Trilateral Agreement, and U.S. assistance, especially in the area of privatization and democratization.
In the area of communications, for the U.S. government she prepared recommendations on transmission options for international broadcasting and estimated potential audiences for radio transmissions, the estimates
presented to OMB in support of modernization plans for VOA facilities (1975-1981). She evaluated U.S. communications assistance programs, preparing publications and promotional materials for international conferences, and tested messages to determine their effectiveness. For
example, prior to the introduction of the new U.S. $100 bill, she analyzed media-habits and conducted focus group discussions in Ukraine; her recommended communications options for the introduction of the new U.S. $100 bill in Ukraine were implemented and contributed to the
non-disruptive introduction of the new bill.
She is fluent in Ukrainian; conversant in French, Russian and Polish, which she reads with ease; has a rudimentary knowledge of Portuguese, German, and Turkish.
From 1970 to 1996 she worked for the United States Information Agency as project manager, special assistant, and social science analyst. She was an instructor in the Political Economy Department of the University of
Toronto, Canada, and a researcher at the Foreign Policy Institute in Philadelphia. She has a B.A. and an M.A. from the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School (1962, 1963) and took graduate courses at the University of Toronto (political economy department). She has lectured
and led seminars in the U.S. (for example, University of Pennsylvania, Harvard University, University of Illinois, USIA, State Department, Defense Department, U.S. Embassies and Missions) and overseas (BBC London, Almaty Kazakstan, Accra, Ghana, Kyiv Ukraine).
email elehie@qev.com |
