Nicole Beniamini is a Vice President of Edison Research. She joined Edison Research in 2004 after graduating from The College of New Jersey with a bachelor’s degree in Communication Studies.
Beniamini manages a wide variety of research studies. Since her start at Edison, she has been heavily involved with the election exit polls conducted for the National Election Pool. She supervises the research and recruitment processes.
In addition to election exit polls, Beniamini also runs telephone surveys, online surveys and face-to-face intercepts as well. She is responsible for determining client needs, writing questionnaires, overseeing fieldwork, analyzing data and creating presentations.
Beniamini’s energetic daughter was born in 2013 and has kept her on her toes ever since.
As a Vice President at Edison Research, Melissa DeCesare brings over two decades of research skill in questionnaire development, sample recruitment and field logistics to The Research Moms. As a mom of two children, she combines real world experience with data to create ideas and insights about today’s busy moms.
She has authored posts about moms and their media habits, focusing on how this important demographic group adapts to advancing technologies like the rise of the smartphone. DeCesare is the principal author of the annual Moms and Media report, which highlights how moms consume both traditional and modern media. The report has been quoted in various publications for its relevance to social networking, Internet consumption and mobile device ownership among moms.
In addition to her role in The Research Moms, she directs Edison’s music research operations, with a key role in both project management and client deliverables.
Laura Ivey is a Director of Research at Edison Research. She manages Edison’s content strategies, including marketing and social media efforts, and serves as contributing writer to various white papers and custom projects. Laura joined the company from Nielsen, where she was an Account Director in the Southeast U.S. for the Audio division, after spending many years of her career in the radio industry and with Arbitron. While at Arbitron she was involved in creating the What Women Want from Radio study, and co-presented it at the NAB.
Ivey received her undergraduate degree in Communications from The University of Tennessee. She received her Master’s degree in Applied Sociology from UMBC, The University of Maryland, Baltimore County, where she studied survey design and conducted qualitative research on the impact of social media.
She is a mom of three boys.
Melissa Kiesche is a Senior Vice President of Edison Research and has been with the company since 2003.
Her primary area of focus at Edison is leading the election research and recruiting team responsible for preparing the exit polls for the National Election Pool. She oversees the research process and directs the effort to recruit the thousands of people that work on Election Day.
Kiesche has taken her experience in election exit polling and translated it in the development of Edison’s consumer exit polling business. She has drawn upon key operational components of election exit polling and worked to employ them in many different areas. Kiesche specializes in logistically challenging projects, developing and implementing new research designs for clients throughout the country.
Kiesche graduated from Syracuse University with degrees in Policy Studies from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Television, Radio and Film from the Newhouse School of Public Communications.
She is a mom of identical twin girls. They keep her laughing, learning and juggling!
Megan Lazovick is a Vice President at Edison Research. She crafts custom research for thought leadership and content marketing and specializes in the creative presentation of data and insights.
Lazovick is an experienced moderator in many forms of qualitative research: focus groups, one-on-one interviews, and ethnographic in-person studies. She has spent substantial time traveling around the country interviewing people about their lives and passions. Her observations on consumer attitudes and behavior helped to shape custom research studies that have been widely publicized and cited in the media industry, such as Edison’s Share of Speech and NPR and Edison Research’s Smart Audio Report.
She has presented internationally at Next Radio, The European Radio Show, RAIN Summit London, Campaigns and Marketing Summit, Marketing to Women, Marketing to Moms, Country Radio Seminar, and other prominent media industry events.
Lazovick is a graduate of The College of New Jersey where she majored in Communication Studies with a focus in radio and television.
Laura Silvia is Edison’s VP of Digital Operations and IT, and has been with the company since 2003. During her tenure at Edison, she has pioneered the use of various online and mobile techniques to create research instruments that produce quality data for clients across the globe. She oversees Edison’s research projects that use the latest methodologies, and she ensures that each project is presented clearly and logically in the online and mobile environment.
Additionally, Silvia manages Edison’s internal business technology, maintaining current systems and procuring new solutions for better collaboration and communication with colleagues and clients around the world.
Silvia is a graduate of the College of the Holy Cross and is a mom of two boys.