Education
University of South Florida, Ph.D., Sociology — August 2014
University of Central Florida, M.A., Applied Sociology — May 2009
University of Central Florida, B.A., Sociology — May 2007
Recent Employment History
Fors Marsh — December 2018-Present
Deputy Director, Military Analytics — August 2023-Present
Contractor support for Office of People Analytics’ (OPA; Department of Defense (DoD)) Data Science and Governance (DS&G), Health & Resilience (H&R), and Center for Retention and Readiness (R&R) Divisions’ projects serving internal needs, the Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office, Defense Suicide Prevention Office, and the Office of Force Resiliency
Project Director serving OPA DS&G efforts, including cost control, budgeting, and management responsibilities
Facilitates subcontractor support for ongoing research efforts
Consults on research and statistical methodology across the organization
Excels in technical writing and proposal development for Federal contracts
Assists the Director in day-to-day division management activities (e.g., SOP development)
Currently supervising a team of three social scientists
Senior Researcher II, Military Analytics - August 2021 - August 2022
Project Manager on multiple projects across OPA’s H&R and DS divisions
Acting as lead and supporting analyst on OPA research projects across OPA divisions
Used R, SQL, SAS, and NVivo to support client and project objectives
Completed original research projects and reports using qualitative methods (i.e., in-depth interviewing and thematic analysis) and quantitative methods (e.g., survival modeling, generalized linear models, survey-adjusted population estimates)
Combined and analyzed survey data with administrative data assets to address client research and operational needs
Working on-site with civilian DoD personnel
Led FMG-internal R Community of Interest for 1.5 years, offering and facilitating monthly training sessions on the R statistical software
Supervised up to five team members at once
Leading division initiatives on workplace climate and mental health wellbeing
Senior Researcher I, Military Analytics - October 2020 - August 2021
Researcher IV, Military Analytics - December 2018 - October 2022
Center for Human Capital Innovation - November 2015-December 2018
Data Scientist
Led analytic efforts on Department of Navy (DON), Department of Homeland Security, and commercial-client funded performance management projects
Completed original operational research projects and reports using qualitative and quantitative research methods
Presented analytic findings to technical and non-technical audiences
Developed original surveys and interview protocols in support of projects
Developed Performance Appraisal materials, including Performance Review questionnaires
Worked directly with commercial clients in the C-suite to best serve their needs
Assisted with proposal preparation and review
Held Tier 3 Cleared DON CAC
University of South Florida - August 2009-May 2015
Instructor of Sociology (Graduate Teaching Associate & Visiting Instructor) — August 2011 – May 2015
Taught Introduction to Sociology (2 sections), Contemporary Social Problems (2 sections) Medical Sociology (6 sections), Research Methods (2 sections), and Social Science Statistics (1 online session, 1 face-to-face section) to Sociology, Health Sciences, and Interdisciplinary Social Science majors
Supervised two teaching assistants for Online Social Science Statistics
Served as Department of Sociology Colloquium Planning Committee member
Graduate Research Assistant, Department of Sociology — August 2009– June 2011
Prepared manuscripts for presentation and publication in peer-reviewed journals, relevant to the funded study objectives (NIH-NIDDK Grant Number: 1R21DK081878-01A1)
Conducted secondary data analysis of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health)
Examined social consequences of overweight and obesity in adolescence and early adulthood
Utilized SAS and Stata to program and conduct data analysis including merging, recoding variables, survey procedures, univariate and bivariate analyses, and multiple regression
Conducted non-participant observation (ethnographic fieldwork) in preschool settings
Skills and Software Proficiency
Survey Research and Quantitative Data Analysis: Survey design, question formation, sampling procedures; descriptive statistics; inferential statistics (e.g., t-tests, one-way ANOVA, ANCOVA, correlation, chi square, survival models (e.g., Kaplan-Meier estimates, Cox regression), generalized linear models (OLS, logit models [binary, ordered, multinomial], count models [Poisson, negative binomial], and Heckman selection models)
Qualitative Research and Data Analysis: In-depth interviewing, interview schedule design, ethnographic fieldwork (non-participant), focus groups, grounded theory, thematic analysis
Software: R (2 years; data cleaning, recoding, merging, tidyverse, survival analysis, generalized linear models, survey-adjusted data analysis), SAS (5 years; data cleaning, recoding, merging, and survey-adjusted data analysis), Stata (8 years; data cleaning, recoding, and survey-adjusted data analysis), SPSS (8 years, data cleaning and data analysis, limited programming), NVivo (less than 1 year; thematic coding); SQL (less than 1 year, extract-transform-load support); MS Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook), Google Drive
Additional Training
Data Science Specialization Certificates (with distinction) by Johns Hopkins University on Coursera (June – September 2015):
(1) The Data Scientist’s Toolbox; (2) R Programming; (3) Getting and Cleaning Data; (4) Exploratory Data Analysis; (5) Reproducible Research.
DataCamp R and SQL Courses in Data Science and Data Management (February 2019 - Present):
(1) Introduction to the Tidyverse; (2) Introduction to R; (3) Intermediate R; (4) Introduction to Importing Data in R; (5) Intermediate Importing Data into R; (6) Joining Data in SQL; (7) Introduction to Data in R; (8) Introduction to SQL; (9) Importing and Cleaning Data in R Case Studies; (10) Cleaning Data in R; (11) Exploratory Data Analysis in R; (12) Introduction to Writing Functions in R; (13) Writing Functions in R; (14) Joining Data with dplyr; (15) Data Visualization with ggplot2 (Part 1); (16) Data Manipulation with dplyr (17) Introduction to Data Visualization with ggplot2;
Peer-Reviewed Publications
Dotson, Hilary M., Elizabeth Vaquera, and Solveig A. Cunningham. 2015. “Sandwiches and Subversion: Teachers’ Mealtime Strategies and Preschoolers’ Agency.” Childhood 22(3): 362-374. doi: 10.1177/0907568214539711
Ford, Jason A., Ryan D. Schroeder, and Hilary M. Dotson. 2014. “Weight Strain and Binge Drinking among Adolescents.” Deviant Behavior 35(9): 742-757.
Dotson, Hilary M. and J. Scott Carter. 2012. “Changing Views Toward the Death Penalty? The Intersecting Impact of Race and Gender on Attitudes, 1974-2006.” Justice System Journal 33(1): 1-20.
Dotson, Hilary M. 2011. “Homeless Women, Parents and Children: A Triangulation Approach Analyzing Factors Influencing Homelessness and Child Separation.” Journal of Poverty 15(3): 241-258.
Additional Public-Facing Publications
Note that much of my work is in the form of technical reports which are not publicly available.
Daniel, Samantha, Ariel Hill, Yvette Claros, Sarah De Silva, Margaret Coffey, Brice McKeever, Hilary Dotson, and John Chantis. 2022, January. Examination of Single Item Versus Grid Presentation in the Assessment of Racial/Ethnic Harassment and Discrimination: Technical Report. Office of People Analytics, report no. 2021-021. Office of People Analytics: Alexandria, VA. Available on www.opa.mil.
Rosa, Alessandra, Elizabeth Aranda, and Hilary Dotson. 2022. "'You are not allowed to speak Spanish! This is an American hospital': Puerto Ricans' Experiences with Linguistic Discrimination." In Cobas, Jose (ed.) The Spanish Language in the United States: Rootedness, Racialization, and Resistance. NY: Routledge.
Castañeda, Heide, Kline, Nolan, Rapp, Mackenzie, Demetriou, Nicole, Ahmed, Naheed, Chan, Isabella, Crocker, Theresa, Dickey, Nathaniel, Dillon, Patrick, Dotson, Hilary, Frost, Jordana, Hobbs, Natalie, Koby Novicki, Emily, McNab, Philip, Montiel-Ishino, Francisco, and Timmons, Colleen (2011) Assessing the 2010 Affordable Care Act: Perspectives of Future Health Care Professionals. Practicing Anthropology 33(4): 44 –48.
Last updated January 8, 2024