Latino Decisions is a joint effort between Pacific Market Research, a nationally known research firm, and Dr. Gary Segura and Dr. Matt Barreto, leading Latino politics scholars and professors at Stanford University and the University of Washington.
Both Dr. Segura and Dr. Barreto are experienced and nationally respected researchers who have a deep understanding of U.S. Latino culture and advanced quantitative research skills. Their expertise, coupled with Pacific Market Research’s logistical capabilities, makes Latino Decisions a leader in the field. In 2011, Dr. Gabriel Sanchez, of the University of New Mexico, joined Latino Decisions as Director of Research, bringing additional strength in designing and analyzing Latino public opinion surveys.
Background on the researchers:
Dr. Gary Segura is a Professor of Political Science at Stanford University, and Director of Chicano Studies in the Center for Comparative Studies of Race and Ethnicity. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois in 1992. His work focuses on issues of political representation, and is focusing on the accessibility of government and politics to America’s growing Latino minority, as well as a book-length project on the links between casualties in international conflict and domestic politics. His recent work has been published in the American Political Science Review, the American Journal of Political Science, the Journal of Politics, the Political Research Quarterly, Perspectives on Politics, and the Annual Review of Political Science. He has extensive survey research experience. He is a co-Principal Investigator of the Latino National Survey, a national poll of 8600 Latino residents of the United States conducted in the winter and spring 2006. He serves on the Board of Overseers of the American National Election Study, is the President-elect of the Midwest Political Science Association, and is a current or former member of the governing boards of the American Political Science Association, Midwest Political Science Association, and Western Political Science Association. In 2008, Segura and Barreto were the co-principal investigators of the American National Election Study (ANES) Latino oversample, which extended the 60 year old ANES study to Latinos, and for the first time offered the survey in Spanish.
Dr. Matt Barreto is an associate professor of political science at the University of Washington, and director of the Washington Institute for the Study of Ethnicity and Race (WISER). He is also the director of the Washington Poll, a statewide opinion survey in Washington state. He received his Ph.D. in political science from the University of California, Irvine. His research examines the political participation of racial and ethnic minorities in the United States and his work has been published in the American Political Science Review, Political Research Quarterly, Public Opinion Quarterly, Urban Affairs Review, and other peer reviewed journals. Barreto specializes in Latino and immigrant voting behavior, and teaches courses on Racial and Ethnic Politics, Latino Politics, and Voting and Elections at UW. He is also an affiliated faculty member in the Center for Statistics and the Social Sciences (CSSS) at the University of Washington, and is an affiliated research scholar with the Tomás Rivera Policy Institute and with the Center for the Study of Los Angeles. In 2004, Barreto was a co-author of the TRPI/Washington Post National Survey of Latino voters, and in 2006 he was a principal advisor and survey consultant to the Latino Policy Coalition which conducted four nationwide surveys of Latino voters during the midterm elections. In 2008, Barreto and Segura were the co-principal investigators of the American National Election Study (ANES) Latino oversample, which extended the 60 year old ANES study to Latinos, and for the first time offered the survey in Spanish. In 2009, Barreto was appointed to the ANES Board of Overseers.
Dr. Gabriel Sanchez is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of New Mexico, and Assistant Director of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Center for Health Policy at the University of New Mexico. He received his Ph.D in Political Science from the University of Arizona. His research explores the political behavior of racial and ethnic populations in the United States, Latino health policy, and the congressional behavior of Latino and African American members of Congress. His work has been published in Political Research Quarterly, Social Science Quarterly, Urban Affairs Review, Political Science and Politics, Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved and American Politics Research, as well as other peer reviewed journals. Professor Sanchez has also published a book, Hispanics and the U.S. Political System through Prentice Hall Press. Sanchez specializes in public opinion and survey research, and teaches courses focused on racial and ethnic politics, Latino politics, and public opinion and electoral behavior at UNM. Sanchez has been the principal investigator or co-principal investigator for several political surveys, including the Latino Decisions National Poll on Health Care Reform (2009), and the Collaborative Multi-racial Post-election Study (2008), which was a national telephone survey of registered voters conducted in six languages. A leading expert on Latino and New Mexico politics, he has provided political commentary to several state, national, and international media outlets, and is currently Director of Research for Latino Decisions.
Dr. Victoria M. DeFrancesco Soto is Director of Communications, and received her Ph.D. from Duke University and was recently named one of the top 12 scholars in the country by Diverse magazine. Her research on political behavior has been widely published in scholarly journals and cited in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Time, and POLITICO. Fluent in both English and Spanish, Victoria provides political analysis on both US politics and its implications forcountries abroad. Dr. DeFrancesco Soto’s research analyzes how social identities shape political behavior. Her academic work focuses on: campaigns and elections, political marketing, race and ethnic politics, and immigration. She also serves on the editorial board of Politics, Groups, and Identities. She is currently working on a book manuscript that analyzes the role of inter-group identities and micro-targeting in political campaigns. In the media sphere, Victoria contributes to various national and international media outlets. She is a regular political analyst for Univision and CNN en Espanol. In 2008 and 2010, she served as a primary expert and analyst for CNN en Espanol’s election coverage. Victoria also appears on MSNBC, FoxNews, NPR, and Sirius XM. In her media analysis Victoria is passionate about making social science relatable to real time political events. She is a regular blogger for POLITICO’S Arena, Huffington Post, and the Daily Grito. Victoria is a Senior Fellow at the Bernard Center for Women, Politics, and Public Policy. Victoria has taught at Northwestern University, Rutgers and is currently a Visiting Scholar at the University of Texas at Austin.
Pacific Market Research provides data collection services for hundreds of research projects, including straightforward customer satisfaction surveys, quick turnaround political polls, complex mixed methodology projects, sophisticated conjoint studies, rigorously monitored legal projects, and multi-country and multi-language projects, among others. Our clients include venerable national research firms, Fortune 500 companies, boutique consulting and research firms, advertising and public relations agencies, government agencies, and non-profit organizations. Pacific is run by Mark and Andrew Rosenkranz, who combined, have more than 30 years experience in the survey research field. For more, visit www.pacificmarketresearch.com
