Our team

David Neal, Ph.D.

Founder and Managing Partner of Catalyst Behavioral Sciences, David holds a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Melbourne and has published extensively in the areas of behavior change, attitudes and motivational processes, and consumer and social decision making. In the commercial world, his background has emphasized health interventions, new product development, product defection and retention, and the use of surveys in litigation.

David has particular expertise in two areas:

1. Survey research in trademark, false advertising, and patent litigation
David has conducted hundreds of surveys in connection with issues around trademark confusion, genericness, secondary meaning, fame, consumer deception, patent infringement, and apportionment of feature value. On more than 50 occasions, he has testified as a survey expert in federal court proceedings, the National Advertising Division (NAD), and the International Trade Commission (ITC).

Learn more about our legal surveys →

2. The formation and change of consumer and health habits David has published extensively on this topic and consults to Fortune 100 companies and the US Government on methods for changing and forming habits.

Learn more about our health research →

David's academic research has been featured in a range of media outlets, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Time Magazine, The LA Times, The Australian, The Independent, ABC News, Fox News, and MSNBC. He has also appeared on BBC Radio, CBC Radio in Canada, NPR in the US, German National Public Radio, and CBS News, among others.

Research Team

Connie Rodman, M.S.

Connie is a senior research consultant who has extensive experience in litigation survey programming and fielding, data analysis, and report development. Her health behavior change research is guided by over a decade of practice as an occupational therapist in a variety of settings. She holds a Master of Science degree from UNC-Chapel Hill.

 Cary Anderson, Ph.D.

Cary is a behavioral scientist with a Ph.D. in Marketing from the University of Pittsburgh. Her academic research examines the impact of visual design on consumers' thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. A former cartographer, she has a special interest in visual/aesthetic aspects of consumer decision making and how these factors can override “rational” drivers of choice.

 Don Clermont, M.P.H.

Don is a research consultant and statistician with a Master of Public Health from Tufts University. His academic background is in survey research methodology, and he has extensive experience in survey programming and statistical modeling.

Roger Saumure

Roger is a Marketing Ph.D. student at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. His academic research focuses on consumer behavior and judgment and decision-making, including how people interact with and use new technologies (e.g., artificial intelligence). He also studies retailing, product assortment, variety-seeking, and brand loyalty using a range of methods, including surveys, field studies, and augmented reality.

Daniel Reich

Daniel received his B.A. in Psychology from UNC-Chapel Hill and is currently a doctoral student in the Department of Sociology at Duke University. His research focuses on the relationship between moral and political ideologies and their influence on cooperation and prosocial behavior. Methodologically, he is interested in scale development, experimental design, and survey research.

 Elizabeth Miclau

Elizabeth is a research assistant completing her BA in Neuroscience from Harvard. Her academic work combines neuroscience, psychology, and organizational behavior, focusing on the relationship between brain function and behavior and examining decision-making processes at both individual and group levels. She is interested in how subtle changes in choice structure can nudge people toward behaviors that enhance well-being.

Penny Scudder

Penny Scudder is the Business Manager for Catalyst Behavioral Sciences. Her work focuses on general office administration, executive support, contract review, bookkeeping, accounts payable/receivable, and vendor/contractor set-up.

Partners

Academic Fellows

Dan Bauer, Ph.D.

Dan Bauer, a quantitative psychologist, is a Professor in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at UNC-Chapel Hill, where he serves as the Director of the L.L. Thurstone Psychometric Laboratory (e.g., factor analysis, structural equation modeling, item response theory, latent class analysis, mixture modeling) and longitudinal data analysis (e.g., multilevel models, latent curve models, survival analysis). He has published over 100 peer-reviewed papers and led grants from the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health. Through an online training platform he co-founded, CenterStat.org, he has taught quantitative methods to over 10,000 researchers worldwide.

Claudia Townsend, Ph.D.

Claudia is an Associate Professor of Marketing at the University of Miami’s Herbert Business School. Her research interests include judgment and decision making, visual processing, aesthetics and product design in consumer choice, behavioral decision theory, self-identity, and prosocial consumer behavior. She has won numerous awards for both her research and teaching. Claudia has published in top academic journals and currently serves as an Associate Editor for both the Journal of Marketing, and Journal of Marketing Research.

Juliano Laran, Ph.D.

Juliano is a consumer psychologist specializing in nonconscious drivers of human motivation. Dr. Laran, who the American Marketing Association has listed as one of the 20 most productive marketing scholars in the world, has published in the areas of consumer behavior, food consumption, social psychology, and management science. His research focuses on how to motivate consumers to pursue their health, spending, and productivity goals. He has published in top academic journals, including Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing, and Management Science. His research has been cited over 3000 times, and has appeared in the New York Times, NPR, and others.

Asaf Mazar, Ph.D.

Asaf is a behavioral scientist and postdoctoral research fellow at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. He studies how people build and break habits, as well as how to shape behavior using friction, or seemingly-small external barriers. His research uses a diverse range of methods, including field experiments, experience sampling, geospatial analysis, and surveys. His work has been published in top academic journals (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Psychological Science) and media outlets (Washington Post, Forbes, Fortune, Time, Financial Times, CNN).

Industry Fellows

Daniel Epstein, M.B.A.

Principal of Daniel Epstein & Associates, LTD, a consultancy specializing in marketing and innovation. Previously, he was the Harley Proctor Marketing Director at Proctor & Gamble, where he managed and built some of the world’s best-known brands.

Contact

DAVID NEAL, PH.D. - MANAGING PARTNER

[email protected]

PENNY SCUDDER - BUSINESS MANAGER

[email protected]

OFFICES

Miami, FL