Dr. Melissa Pittaoulis

Education

PhD and MA in sociology, Temple University
BA in criminal justice and sociology, La Salle University

Experience

Dr. Melissa Pittaoulis specializes in survey research, statistical sampling, and demography. Her survey research experience includes designing questionnaires, supervising data collection, and analyzing data. As part of her survey work, Dr. Pittaoulis works with clients to select--and, if necessary, design--control stimuli to include in the survey. In addition to designing surveys, Dr. Pittaoulis also reviews and evaluates third-party surveys.
 
Dr. Pittaoulis has extensive experience working on surveys used in intellectual property disputes concerning false advertising and trademark and trade dress infringement. In the area of trademark and trade dress infringement, Dr. Pittaoulis' project experience includes participating in the design of surveys used to establish likelihood of confusion, secondary meaning, and genericness. She has conducted false advertising and trademark surveys using different modes of data collection, including telephone, mall-intercept, and the Internet.
 
Dr. Pittaoulis' sampling expertise includes designing sampling plans, selecting samples, and calculating sample estimates and confidence intervals. Her demography work has concentrated on producing population estimates used in determining class certification.
 
Dr. Pittaoulis has worked on survey and sampling projects in a wide variety of industries, including: automobiles, beverages, beauty products, clothing apparel, computers, financial products, insurance, mobile phones, personal care products, pharmaceuticals, snack foods, and video games. In addition, Dr. Pittaoulis has considerable experience with radio and television audience measurement. She has also conducted studies on cost-sharing in the Medicare Part D program.

In addition to her work at NERA, Dr. Pittaoulis has taught statistics at the undergraduate level at Temple University. Her academic work uses survey research and in-depth interviews to examine how young people navigate the transition to adulthood.