Have you ever had those friends where you’ve known them so long that you can’t even remember how you’ve met? When we were recently chatting with Ginny Williams, Principal, and Andy Cohen, Accounts Supervisor, of Webb Strategic Communications, we realized we couldn’t pinpoint our initial work together. No surprise given that we have worked for, and alongside, Webb for the better part of our 20 years.

In that time, both our firms have evolved, both in the nature of our work and in name. Webb Strategic Communications formerly known as Webb PR, and Corona Insights formerly known as Corona Research. Both rebranding efforts reflected the need each company saw to provide more complete, and more strategic, offerings to clients.

In honor of Corona’s 20th anniversary, we are celebrating the outstanding people and organizations making a positive contribution to our community.

Each month, Corona is making a $500 donation in honor of a member of our team. For December, Kate Darwent selected Havre de Grace Arts Collective. We chatted with Kate to learn more about this organization and why she chose them.

Kate’s Charity of Choice is the Havre de Grace Arts Collective. She began volunteering there shortly after moving to Maryland with her husband. The organization reopened a newly renovated opera house in town and manages its arts programming. They also run a coop art gallery, public art program and more. It is a cornerstone of the local arts community. “Since I volunteer with them, I know how far $500 will go,” remarked Kate.

Our final interview of the year coincides with a Corona-versary. Kate Darwent celebrates seven years with Corona on December 10^th. With an MA and PhD in Social Psychology, and a minor in Quantitative Psychology, Kate was originally hired for her quantitative research expertise. As Kate recalled, “my primary expertise when I started was more pure quantitative work such as designing surveys and data analysis. Since then I have expanded my expertise to include evaluation and strategic planning. I’ve also learned a lot about qualitative methods as well.” Along the way she’s earned promotions to Senior Associate and now Director.

Kate is known for her interest in working on a variety of different projects – she describes herself as “topic agnostic” – and stretching to gain new skills. One of the things she enjoys about Corona is “being encouraged to jump on projects that interest you for whatever reason. I’ve really benefited from all of that exposure to different services. I’d had zero exposure to these things in graduate school.”

In honor of Corona’s 20th anniversary, we are celebrating the outstanding people and organizations making a positive contribution to our community.

Each month, Corona is making a $500 donation in honor of a member of our team. For November, Jim Pripusich selected GiveWell. We chatted with Jim to learn more about this organization and why he chose them.

As a quantitative data wiz at Corona, it is no surprise that Jim has been a longtime fan of GiveWell, an organization dedicated to uncovering global health and development efforts where a donated dollar goes furthest in saving and improving lives.

In addition to an excellent ability for sensing when the Corona Staff require a fresh pot of delicious coffee, Jim brings to our team a joy for research. With his inquisitive mind and passion for building the right methods, Jim is always willing to rack his brain for the perfect approach towards better understanding any given situation. Jim’s background in political science provides him a strong foundation in thinking creatively about complex questions and how Corona may build a more holistic picture of any given situation through combing qualitative and quantitative research approaches. According to Jim,

My favorite work involves asking difficult questions and getting creative with research designs. I love to see how a full story emerges when we come at a problem from different angles and employ multiple methods.

Corona does a lot of work with clients in the Denver metro area, but we really love the clients who help us to get out and learn about other areas of the state.  Whether we are conducting needs assessments, economic impact studies, intercept surveys at county fairs, or simply measuring resident opinions about public matters, our clients have always managed to give us challenging and interesting topics to dive into across Colorado.

One such client that we have worked with for years is Summit County Public Health, whom we have worked with for nearly 15 years on projects ranging from measuring opinions about alcohol and substance abuse, to health needs assessments, to targeted studies to understand how to better reach underserved populations in the community.  This month’s interviewee, Robin Albert, has been there for it all, so we were excited to find some time to chat with Robin about her work and the long-term partnership between Summit County and Corona Insights.