Dr. Zdinak holds a Ph.D. in Social Psychology, and a doctoral specialization in statistics. She has led research teams since 2005, supporting CDC, NIH, NSF, and other large-scale grants and projects. She has served as a Social Scientist at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD, and later as a Director of Applied Research and Evaluation at a management consulting firm in Maryland. In these capacities she helped to design research program evaluations, with her most memorable efforts leading a team of researchers and physicians to develop an Intimate Partner Violence/Domestic Violence prevention and response e-learning curriculum. This was one of the only programs of its kind in the United States at that time, training over 7,000 health care providers to assess for and respond to domestic and sexual violence in over 80 clinical settings. Dr. Zdinak is passionate about developing this type of program related to nicotine and tobacco products.
Following her public health experience, Dr. Zdinak spent 6 years at Altria, where she designed, led, and reported on Perception and Behavior studies for various PMTAs. She also spent time leading product research focused on innovation and future harm reduction opportunities. She now serves as Chief Research Officer and Owner of Applied Research and Analysis Company (ARAC), where she leads a team of Ph.D. and Master’s level behavioral scientists in conducting quantitative and qualitative research. This team specializes in TPPI studies, Human Factors and Label Comprehension research, and Actual Use and Longitudinal Experimental Switching Studies. The ARAC team understands that in this regulatory environment, outside researchers must be strategic thinkers and partners in the product innovation, PMTA, and MRTPA process.