Damon is the Vice-President of Telephone Operations at Burke, Inc. Damon plays a critical role in Burke’s Data Collection Division as he oversees the day-to-day operations involved in the execution of telephone research projects. He manages the execution of our Hispanic telephone data collection through our subcontractor partner network. In addition to his day to day responsibilities, Damon serves as Chair of Burke’s Inclusion & Diversity Strategic team called Kaleidoscope and serves on multiple teams within the organization.

Damon is continually involved in staying current in MR Data Collection and general industry knowledge by his active membership in the Insights Association.

He is a Board advisor of the Great Lakes Chapter of the Insights Association and serves as Chair of that Chapter’s Diversity and Education Committee which he formed during his tenure as President in 2014-15, and serves on the National Insights Association’s Chapter Leadership Committee and the newly formed IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity & Access) committee with National IA .  He has been a presenter at multiple educational conferences. Damon is a Graduate of the University of Georgia’s Principles of Marketing Research Certification Program.  Damon is also a Graduate of Cornell University’s Online Diversity and Education Certification Program. Damon has been with Burke since July of 1996.

Damon has a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from University of Cincinnati with a double major in Marketing and Management.

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Terron is a Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB) champion, strategist, and consultant. In 2023, she ventured out of Corporate America after 28 years of service to become a Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging Consultant helping organizations build DEIB strategies and roadmaps; launch employee resource groups; facilitate DEIB training, and embed DEIB into their company’s values, culture, practices, and policies. Terron brings a passion to not only bringing awareness to the importance and value of DEIB on a corporate and individual level, but also the necessity for it. She inspires people and organizations to see their role in being more diverse, equitable, and inclusive to create work environments where people feel like they belong and can thrive as their authentic selves. Terron was able to make a major impact as Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging Manager at 84.51°, a retail data science, insights and media company owned by The Kroger Co. She developed long-term strategies and managed major initiatives related to 84.51°’s DEIB roadmap to ensure the company fulfilled its goals and commitments. She spent almost 15 years at 84.51° with ten of those years in leadership, project management and consulting roles on their Personalized Customer Communications team. She was a founding member of 84.51°’s Insightful Inclusion Council in 2016, where she helped develop and translate their 3-year DEIB roadmap into actionable and measurable deliverables. Prior to 84.51, Terron spent 13 years at Cengage Learning, a publishing company, in customer service, sales, marketing, marketing communications and management roles.

Drawing from an extensive background in market research, along with her expertise in mall intercept field management, qualitative recruitment, and in-person research, Mary embarked on her journey with EMI Research Solutions in 2014, where she initially assumed the role of Senior Research Manager. Over the years, she has risen through the ranks to her current position as the Vice President of Network Partners & Quality. In this pivotal role, Mary takes the helm in safeguarding the vitality and authenticity of EMI's partnerships with suppliers. Her contributions span the spectrum of sample planning, project management, and the implementation of top-tier quality assurance practices. Beyond her professional endeavors, Mary's passions include globe-trotting, passionately cheering on her beloved Cincinnati Bengals, and diligently searching for the world’s best cheeseburger.

Rudy began his career in the market research industry in 1981 managing the data processing operations within a full-service agency. He participated in the move from typewriters, paper surveys and hole punch card readers to the first use of computers for tabulation programming, CATI/CAPI scripting, sample management, predictive dialing, and word processing. He “showed up” in the box with the first computer at MRSI at 15 East 8th Street - it was a large box! And, expensive. Further experience in the UNIX operating system and more advanced tabulation and CATI/CAPI scripting techniques came with employment at Quantime Corporation working in London and Cincinnati. Rudy’s 40+ year career continued with stops at SPSS, GfK/Knowledge Networks, DBM (IVR data collection), Ascribe, eventually helping with the start-up of CodeitSoftware.com. For the last 25 years, Rudy has passionately pursued software solutions for the coding of open-ends and processing of textual content using various forms of AI including Natural Language Processing (NLP), sentiment analysis, supervised machine learning, deep learning, and currently - generative AI, including GPT. Rudy has lived and worked in Cincinnati for his entire career - with a few stints in Europe. A recent grandfather, Rudy finds it interesting that he will speak about the new-born technology of generative AI to a group of super smart, young professionals!

Mike has been in the Market Research industry for 18 years. After studying Computer Science at Xavier, Mike became a Survey Programmer for Nielsen BASES. After a number of years, Mike entered management where he led the programming team in North America and oversaw the outsourced programmers. Mike moved to Directions Research in 2015 where he managed a number of technical and development teams. Mike became a part-owner of Directions in 2017. At Directions today, Mike is also involved in championing Data Quality and leading the AI Solutions group. They are looking at ways to incorporate AI at Directions. Despite his technical background, Mike is fairly new to the AI space, but sees the huge potential it could have. He is an avid podcast listener, pickleball player, and FC Cincinnati Season Ticket holder. He is married to his wife, Rachel, and they have two kids who keep them very busy.