QRCA Annual Conference 2027

Emily is a creativity-driven operations and project management professional experienced at making complex projects accessible and successful for diverse audiences. She's passionate about leadership, leveraging the latest tech with intention.

David has spent over twenty-five years exploring human perceptions, behaviors and their implications for business strategy. He strives to understand how both rational and emotional elements factor into decision making. Based on this approach, he founded Hemispheres.

Arundati Dandapani, MLitt, CAIP, CIPP/C, CIPM, is Founder and CEO of Generation1.ca, a North American social enterprise and professional community organization advancing immigrant inclusion with professional supports, career mobility, and workforce innovations.

Jessica Broome founded Southpaw Insights in 2008 to conduct meaningful, human-centered research that helps organizations understand what people think, feel, and do. She earned a PhD in Survey Methodology from the University of Michigan.

Kathy is currently Principal of QualAdvisor, a consultancy that works with clients who would like to use customer insights to help fuel business growth, but do not have the “know how”, budget or staffing to hire a full-service research firm.

Connie is a systems thinker, drawn to the hard questions that resist easy answers. My work centers on what it means to be human in the age of AI — how technology is reshaping human experience from the inside out.

John is the founder and managing partner of Partners Wealth Management, a Certified Financial Planner™(CFP®) with more than 20 years' experience in wealth management. He is the co-author of the book, Strictly Business: Planning Strategies for Privately Owned Businesses.

Stefanie Hutka, PhD, is a UX practitioner, author, and educator. She is currently the Head of Design Research at Sendfull, her boutique consultancy for emerging technology teams. Previously, Stefanie led design research and strategy for 0-to-1 product launches.

I help companies grow by turning customer insight and relationships into momentum. Over the years I have built programs that strengthened advocacy, deepened executive engagement, and surfaced insights that shape product, marketing, and strategy decisions.

Julia has built her career at the smack dab intersection of Anthropology and Marketing, exploring how humans make economic decisions. In 2025, she founded Isaacs Insights LLC., and offers qualitative strategy, moderation, and analysis to brands.

As an experienced business attorney, my practice focuses on mergers and acquisitions for middle and lower middle market companies. I advise clients on a broad range of transactional matters. I work closely with startups and closely held businesses across all stages.

Dr. Melika Kordrostami is a Marketing Professor specializing in Research Methods and Consumer Psychology, with over a decade of experience doing end-to-end market research in academia.

Abby Leafe has been an independent qualitative researcher for over 15 years, and has been pricing qualitative projects for more than two decades. A past president of QRCA, she loves a good spreadsheet more than you might expect for a quallie.

Dr. Mary Carol Mazza is a behavioral scientist, researcher, and strategist who has worked at the intersection of human behavior and technology across tech, healthcare, government and academia. She has held senior research and strategy roles at Apple, Meta, and Google.