As a mixed-methods methodologist and interdisciplinary researcher, Barbara-Shae brings together qualitative and quantitative approaches, diverse perspectives, and multiple forms of evidence to help organizations and communities make sense of complexity and translate research into strategic direction.

Her methodological practice spans qualitative and quantitative research design, data collection, interpretation, and mixed-methods integration, with particular expertise in qualitative research. She has designed and conducted in-depth interviews, focus groups, surveys, experience sampling, and other forms of community and stakeholder research, working across methods to identify patterns, understand context, and connect findings across data sources. She is particularly interested in questions of belonging, place, identity, access, and experience, and in developing research approaches that allow organizations to understand not only what is happening, but why it matters and what it might mean for their work.

Barbara-Shae has led and co-led research across sectors, including work with AARP, the Obama Foundation, the Barr Foundation, the City of Charlotte, The Field Museum, the Norman Rockwell Museum, and Museum Hue. Her work has included community and stakeholder research, program and experience evaluation, audience research, and studies designed to inform organizational strategy. Within Arts & Culture at NORC, she has worked with cultural institutions and their communities to understand audience experiences, evaluate programs, and explore how museums and other cultural organizations can foster connection and belonging. Across these settings, she brings methodological rigor, interdisciplinary thinking, and incorporates the perspectives of the people most connected to the questions being studied.

Before joining Arts & Culture at NORC, Barbara-Shae earned her PhD in cognitive psychology, where her research examined how social background, personality, and cognition shape aesthetic perception and experience. Her scholarship has explored the intersection of cognition, culture, and identity through research, public scholarship, and creative practice, including her 2017 TEDx Talk, The Color Line: Black and White Aesthetic Values, and the 2020 exhibition When They See Us, What Do They See? Perspectives on Black Art at the Paul R. Jones Museum. She is the lead author of a chapter on aesthetic preference and perception in Creativity, Innovation, and Change Across Cultures and has published peer-reviewed research on topics including health care access, cognitive aging, and the relationship between aesthetic experience and personal background.