I’ve worked with Monica for 12 years. Without a doubt she is the best qualitative researcher I’ve ever known. Whether it’s conceptualizing and designing studies or collecting and analyzing data or presenting results in high impact formats, she’ll do it herself, or organize and oversee a highly effective team to do it. No project is too small or too big. Qualanalytics, under Monica’s direction, meets the very highest standards in qualitative research.
Kim Blankenship, PhD
Professor, Department of Sociology, American University
Founding Director, Center on Health, Risk and Society
We first hired Monica for a two year, complex mixed-method evaluation in Nepal that included a significant qualitative component. We had previously struggled to find someone with the depth of knowledge to handle is multi-layered approach, but Monica was more than up to the task. She was a knowledgeable advisor, conscientious data collector, fantastic colleague and clear and succinct writer. She also worked well with the quantitative team to ensure a seamless data analysis approach. We have since hired her for other activities and never regret working with Monica! I would highly recommend her.
Amanda Pomeroy-Stevens
Senior Technical Advisor
John Snow Inc.
Monica was the lead researcher on the qualitative component of a multi-country study we were leading on understanding the lives, livelihoods, and local impacts of Syrian refugees in the Middle East and their hosting communities. We were interested at understanding nuances and digging deeper into themes that the quantitative surveys could not capture – understanding gender dynamics within refugee households when men find they are unable to fulfil their designated roles as breadwinners, characterizing the daily struggles with the lack of legal documents and the worries about the future of their children, and documenting some of the extreme risks and negative coping strategies that some refugees were driven to. Monica and her co-researcher developed interview guides, training local facilitators, analyzed the findings, and participated in the writing of the report. I was impressed by her dedication, thoughtfulness, and the careful analysis, which truly enriched the narrative and brought it to life, seamlessly blending with the quantitative analysis and findings. Thanks very much!.
Dr. Nandini Krishnan
Senior Economist
The World Bank
I had a privilege of working with Monica for a qualitative research project in Nepal. In addition to her obvious expertise in designing interview guides, training field teams, analyzing data, writing-up the findings – Monica is open-minded and is responsive to feedback from others, which makes both the process and outcome of our work more productive and meaningful to the reality on the ground. I truly appreciate Monica’s professionalism, commitment, hard-work, patience, and also a fun and positive attitude towards completing high quality work, both independently and as a team.
Kaori Oshima
Social Development Specialist
The World Bank
Ms. Biradavolu’s work on the review of the ethnic scholarship programme, and her outputs were of high quality, as assessed by UNICEF’s review management team, and from feedback provided by MoEYS senior counterparts, who valued the evidence yielded. Ms. Biradavolu’s professional working style was highly appreciated by UNICEF and MoEYS, and was integral to being able to effectively collect data from a range of stakeholders and beneficiaries from different ethnic groups.
Katheryn Bannet
Chief of Education
UNICEF, Cambodia