Total Credits: 1 Advance Credits
Slow seasons at work—whether from economic shifts, client pauses, or company restructuring—can feel unsettling, especially early in your career. But downtime doesn't have to mean standing still. In this session, experienced researchers will share how they stayed strategic and made impact during uncertain times. From building skills and visibility to navigating layoffs or lulls in workflow, you’ll hear real-world stories and get actionable tips for turning quiet seasons into career-defining moments.
Cynthia D. Harris, MBA is the founder and ceo of 8:28 Consulting, LLC., a qualitative research and marketing strategy agency. After nearly 15 years in corporate marketing research and marketing roles, Cynthia was inspired to synthesize her professional experiences to solely focus on advocating for the Consumers’ voice at tables where brand decisions are made. She has extensive experience in the qualitative research space as a moderator, experiential research designer and facilitator to many Fortune 100 brands. While her practice is wide-ranging, her specializations include multicultural research, advertising and communication optimization and ethnographic approaches. Cynthia is also actively involved in QRCA and currently serving as the 2022 QRCA Annual Conference Speaker Co-Chair. https://www.linkedin.com/in/cdharris/
Victor is an Engagement Manager at Bloomworks Digital after serving as Principal Service Designer in the Office of Public Health Data, Surveillance, and Technology at the CDC. Before that, he was the Chief Technology Officer, Chief Experience Officer, and Service Design Lead of the NASA Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer Research (SBIR/STTR) Programs. Before NASA, he was Director of Strategy at 18F, a civic consultancy for and inside the federal government. He started the education business unit, developed a line of educational products and services, directed strategy, managed the digital strategists’ practice, and served as a designer and strategist on partner projects. Previously, as a Global Education Instructional Designer and Training Development Specialist at Google, he designed learning experiences for people in low-to-middle-income countries around the world. The education could range from experiences covering how to develop web applications and how to use the internet to improve teaching and learning, to experiences exploring how to use internet technologies in post-disaster emergency response situations as well as global digital literacy. As a part of that work, he also advised Google in global energy and access work. Prior to Google he served at USAID and DHS as a science & technology policy advisor and development engineer focusing on infrastructure, post-disaster reconstruction, climate neutrality and global health. Building on his time teaching in secondary schools, he sometimes teaches teachers as an educational specialist and adjunct professor of education focusing on science and math education through classes, workshops, and video series. He still conducts and publishes engineering, design, or education research and is a certified health crisis and trauma counselor (HIV/AIDS, miscarriage, etc.). Pre-COVID, he enjoyed singing in his male a cappella group and teaching salsa classes on the weekend. He still enjoys time with his wonderful family, local and hyperlocal community organizing, and his local choir.
Rating: 17
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Qcast - Natural Ethnography. Using unobtrusive video to tell a story. - On Demand
Rating: 12
Qcast - We’re Swimming in Data, but Sinking Without Data Literacy - On Demand
Rating: 6
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