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Rachel Canas

Pronouns: She/Her

Senior Research Director
Rachel directs complex multimode surveys designed to capture data on health outcomes across the United States.

Rachel’s primary expertise is with managing data collection efforts for large-scale, multimode studies. Her work spans questionnaire development, design of data collection technical systems, management of multimode data collection operations, and training of interviewers and locators.

Rachel currently serves as a data collection lead for the High School & Beyond (HS&B) Follow Up study, a longitudinal, multimode (web, CATI, paper) study looking at the intersection of health, cognition, and education. Her work includes directing the biomarker data collection efforts where HS&B respondents, after completing a web or phone survey, are asked to participate in a home health visit where they then provide blood and saliva samples. She also serves as the data collection lead for the National Longitudinal Survey of 1972 (NLS72), directing in-person field efforts to collect neurocognitive assessments and biomarkers from NLS72 respondents to assess later-life cognitive functioning. She also serves as a lead project manager for the Survey of Women multimode data collection, an address-based study collecting sensitive health measures via web and mail surveys.

She has previously co-authored presentations on topics related to survey operations, including work on respondent incentives, case management systems, and biomarker collection. Prior to NORC, she managed multiple efforts related to questionnaire and instrument development across single-mode and multimode data collections at the University of Michigan Survey Research Operations.

Project Contributions

High School and Beyond Sixth Follow-Up Survey

Ongoing study of 1980 sophomores/seniors tracks influence of education and labor on health and aging

Client:

University of Minnesota

Reproductive Health Experiences & Access

Tracking reproductive health experiences and access in the U.S.