Learn more about our team members

John Geraci

John is the Founder and President of Crux. A seasoned researcher with a broad base of experience, John has earned a national reputation as the go-to researcher for understanding today’s youth generation and on market research in educational settings. A 16-year veteran of one of the nation’s largest research firms, John has overseen nearly two million interviews on behalf of organizations large and small. His clients have included public school districts, colleges/universities, consumer packaged goods companies, advertising agencies, media, manufacturers, dot-com businesses, technology firms, foundations, and associations. He has directed more than 2,000 market research projects.

John has worked closely with Neil Howe and William Strauss, authors of Millennials Go To College, to help provide a data foundation for their theories of how college recruitment and marketing will need to change to accommodate today’s youth generation. He has also worked closely with Don Tapscott, author of Growing Up Digital, to lead a global research study of the "Net Generation."

John is frequently quoted on youth marketing issues. He has been interviewed by CNN, NPR, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, USA TODAY, and other media outlets such as Brand Week, Advertising Age, and American Demographics. He has presented at more than 75 industry events and symposia. He holds a B.A. in Economics (cum laude) from the University of Rochester and an M.B.A. from the William E. Simon Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Rochester.

Lisa Chen

Lisa is involved in all aspects of project management for custom quantitative and qualitative research generated by Crux Research. She handles project design, proposal writing, and development of research project materials, field administration, analysis, and report writing. Prior to joining Crux Research, Lisa was Senior Director of Youth and Education Research at Harris Interactive. While at Harris, she directed dozens of market research studies for youth marketers and for non-profit organizations. She also consults with the nGenera Innovation Network, a community of thought leaders, researcher faculty, innovators, and experts whose combined talents generate continuous insights and big ideas about the opportunities for next generation enterprises.

Lisa has held a variety of research positions including many years of in-depth qualitative and quantitative studies in Child Development/Parenting and Education. More specifically, she has expertise in multicultural/diversity issues and children’s media use. From her tenure at Sesame Workshop, and as a consultant for Noggin and Scholastic, she has experience in curriculum and teacher’s guide development as well as website assessment. As a project manager at Harris Interactive, she led many projects in the technology and youth research spheres.

Lisa earned her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from the Steinhart School of Education at New York University and holds a B.S. in Human Development and Family Studies from Cornell University.

Maureen Palmerini

With 15 years of strategic research experience, Maureen is involved in all aspects of qualitative and quantitative project management at Crux Research. She specializes in quantitative reporting and statistical analysis, including the design and implementation of statistical models.

Prior to joining Crux Research, Maureen spent 10 years managing the marketing research function at Wegmans Food Markets. There, she managed all corporate initiatives related to market share, market segmentation, customer satisfaction, loyalty/retention, brand equity, advertising and promotion evaluation, product positioning/pricing, trade area analysis, demographic analysis, new market and site evaluation, market potential analysis, secondary research, and competitive performance benchmarking. Maureen was also involved in the conduct of data mining using the customer profile data and transaction behavior.

Maureen has also worked at the Gordon S. Black Corporation as a research analyst and computer programmer and has a great deal of experience in high level statistical analysis. Maureen holds a B.S. in Applied and Mathematical Statistics from Rochester Institute of Technology.

Susan Geraci

Sue leads project management, programming, and supplier management at Crux. In addition to assuring that projects get done on time and on budget, she is responsible for programming and analysis of survey data, field coordination of qualitative projects, and office management.

Sue has also worked at the Gordon S. Black Corporation and Harris Interactive as a programming supervisor, and as an independent market research consultant. She holds a B.S. in Business from SUNY Geneseo.

Nan Burgess-Whitman

In addition to her 12 years as a qualitative researcher, Nan brings a wealth of higher education experience to Crux, having spent over 15 years teaching and counseling.

In addition to working with Crux, Nan works with Doyle Research Associates, an innovative qualitative market research supplier in Chicago. Prior to joining Doyle, Nan worked at Synovate and Harris Interactive, where she was one of the pioneers in developing online qualitative methodologies and creative projective techniques suitable for the virtual environment. Nan has complementary skills in traditional focus group moderating, in-home observation, and ethnography and in-depth interviewing.

Nan’s research portfolio includes a broad range of consumer and business-to-business experience, both domestic and international. Her major clients represent many industries, including education, IT, health, food and beverage, marketing communications, travel and hospitality, and pharmaceuticals. Nan has specialized training in qualitative research with kids and teens, and has specific experience with this segment in new product development and website evaluation.

Nan is currently an officer of the Western NY Chapter of Qualitative Research Consultants Association (QRCA) and is active in the American Marketing Association (AMA) and Advertising Research Foundation (ARF). She has presented numerous times at international and national conferences and actively writes for research journals and publications.

Kay Harwood

For the past 15 years of her career, Kay’s primary focus has been qualitative research. She has advanced moderator training from RIVA (Research in Values and Attitudes) and is an active member of the Qualitative Research Consultants Association (QRCA). As a qualitative research consultant (QRC), Kay has moderated hundreds of focus groups and well over 500 one-on-one interviews – with both consumer and business audiences.

Kay has provided qualitative research support to clients representing a diverse array of industries (e.g., technology, telecommunications, consumer packaged goods, automotive, retail). Her qualitative research experience spans a vast array of topic areas and objectives. Her clients particularly value her ability to quickly establish rapport with respondents as well as her active listening skills. These skills and abilities, combined with Kay’s naturally inquisitive nature, often produce unexpected key insights.

Kay has more than 20 years of marketing research experience, including working for Xerox Corporation, Harris Interactive and Marketing Analysts, Inc., and as an independent market research consultant. She received an M.A. degree in social and organizational psychology from the State University of New York at Buffalo following her undergraduate degree from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

Elizabeth Abbas

Betti has more than 35 years of group facilitation and market research experience. Having begun her career as an educator, she spent 25 years in the market research industry moving from a project manager to executive vice president of one the world’s leading research companies. She has worked with a broad range of clients from education, health care, and advertising and public relations to banking and consumer products manufacturers. She is well regarded in the industry as someone who is able to translate market data into actionable results providing clients with clear insight for their decisions.

She spent five years of her corporate career working in international business development in Asia, Europe and South America. This international experience enhanced her understanding of the importance of group dynamics and the role that culture plays in human interaction and decision-making. She uses these various experiences as a facilitator to promote understanding and uncover nuances that add to each individual’s contribution to the group.

Betti holds a B.A. in Education and Economics from Central College (Iowa) and an M.S. in Family and Consumption Economics and Ph.D. in Education from the University of Illinois, Urbana.

Christine Furlanetto

Chris has an extensive background in all aspects of quantitative research, including concept and product testing, package design, attitudes and usage studies, market segmentation, proprietary panel development, choice-based methodologies, tracking, and customer and employee satisfaction measurement. She has experience across a variety of industries and with both traditional and online methodologies.

Chris most recently was Senior Vice President at Marketing Analysts, Inc. (MAi) in Charleston, SC. At MAi, she led projects in the consumer packaged goods, financial services, retail, and health care industries. Chris also served her colleagues at MAi as an internal consultant on both survey design and analytics.

Prior to joining MAi in mid-2004, Chris was Practice Leader for Financial Services Research at Harris Interactive. Her responsibilities there included client development as well as the design, management, and analysis of a wide variety of quantitative and qualitative research studies. Also at Harris Interactive, Chris was a member of the Customer Retention Practice and then managed a General Markets research team. Her background also includes development and application of targeting/scoring models for direct mail programs and evaluation of the results of direct mail campaigns in a variety of industries. Chris also has experience as a math and science instructor at the junior college and high school levels.

Chris holds an M.B.A. in Marketing from Temple University, an M.S. in Biochemistry from the University of Chicago and a B.A. in Chemistry (magna cum laude) from Carleton College.

Neil Howe

Crux is proud of its association with LifeCourse Associates and Neil Howe. Neil is an historian, economist, and demographer who writes and speaks frequently on generational change in American history and on long-term fiscal policy. He is cofounder of LifeCourse Associates, a marketing, H.R., and strategic planning consultancy serving corporate, government, and nonprofit clients. He has co-authored six books with William Strauss, including Generations (1991), 13^th Gen (1993), The Fourth Turning (1997), and Millennials Rising (2000). He is also a senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, where he helps lead the CSIS "Global Aging Initiative," and a senior advisor to the Concord Coalition. He holds graduate degrees in history and economics from Yale University.