Community Research Design is a research and consulting practice focused on designing studies with communities rather than simply about them.
Good research is not only a matter of technical competence. It requires clear questions, sound methods, ethical judgment, and attention to the conditions that shape whether people can participate, be heard, and see themselves accurately represented in the findings.
My work draws on experience in community-oriented research, survey and study design, qualitative and mixed-methods approaches, and the practical work of translating complex questions into research that people can actually use.
This publication is a place for field notes, methodological reflections, practical tools, and writing about what it takes to conduct rigorous research in real communities and institutions.
I will write here about:
Community-centered study design and evaluation
Survey design, recruitment, participation, and nonresponse
Qualitative and mixed-methods research
Equity, accessibility, and ethical research practice
The politics of evidence: whose knowledge is counted, whose is ignored, and why
Lessons from research practice, including the parts that rarely appear in a final report
Community Research Design is built on a simple premise: methods are never neutral in their effects. Every research design makes choices about who is included, what is measured, what counts as evidence, and whose experience becomes visible.
This space is for people who want their research to be both rigorous and accountable—to communities, to participants, and to the real conditions of people’s lives.
About the work
Community Research Design supports research planning, community-informed study design, surveys and questionnaires, qualitative inquiry, mixed-methods projects, evaluation, and translating findings into usable insight.
If you are working on a study, evaluation, or community-engagement project and want to discuss a possible collaboration, contact me at: Kristen@communityresearchdesign.com.