Don Duprez, PhD: Key Skills & Education

Education & Credentials

2016PhD, Social Anthropology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland
2010MA with Distinction, Cultural Anthropology, California State University, Northridge
Higher Education Academy (HEA) Accreditation, UK
OngoingAccessibility Champion & Ambassador Program completion

Awards

California Doctoral Incentive PhD Award China Educational Council Scholarship CSUN Departmental Scholarship CSUN Lecture Series Award

Interests

Astronomy Oceanography Competitive Billiards Running & Camping

Key Skills

A blend of applied, business facing UX practice and rigorous academic research.

Research Craft & Methods

  • Qualitative & quantitative research design
  • Pilot & proof-of-concept design, from usability validation through foundational & strategic studies
  • Structured, semi-structured & ethnographic interviewing
  • Usability & RITE studies, journey mapping, card sorting
  • Survey design/deployment, A/B testing, GIS analytics
  • Six Sigma / Lean process research

Strategic & Systems Thinking

  • Multi-year research program roadmaps
  • Framing outcomes for product, engineering, leadership & vendor stakeholders
  • Strategic vs. tactical program design, from single-team pilots to org-wide initiatives
  • Turning findings into durable, reusable frameworks
  • Root-cause problem framing before solutioning

Stakeholder Relationships

  • Trusted advisor to senior & cross-functional leaders
  • Informing funding & procurement decisions for research-backed tools
  • Calm, confident delivery under pressure
  • Bringing low-UX-maturity teams along
  • Executive-level research readouts

Research Advocacy & Enablement

  • Democratizing access to research findings across teams
  • Large-scale synthesis across longitudinal & cross-program insights
  • Presentations to teams & senior leadership
  • Localization & research support across global geographies

Change Management

  • Change strategy design for large-scale tool & process rollouts
  • Workshop facilitation & survey-based change measurement
  • HCI-grounded approach to adoption & behavior change

Communication & Storytelling

  • Confident live presentation & facilitation
  • Translating complex qualitative data into clear narratives
  • Technical & instructional writing, documentation

People Development

  • Consulting, mentoring & team building
  • Mentoring early-career researchers & contractors
  • Accessibility & inclusion advocacy, including accessibility lead & champion work
  • Team leadership (3–45+ person teams)

AI & Research Tooling

  • Prompt design for rapid qualitative synthesis
  • AI sentiment, heuristic & guidance studies
  • Piloting AI-assisted research repositories focused on reducing rework & mitigating risk
  • Applied, self-directed AI education, including LLM-based workflow design at scale

Lecture & Curriculum Design

  • Designing coursework in cultural & social anthropology, theory, and research methods
  • Lecturing across undergraduate & graduate courses (HEA-accredited)
  • Ongoing adjunct professorship, Metro State University & Front Range Community College

Tools & Platforms

Qualtrics SurveyMonkey SPSS ArcGIS / GIS Excel & SQL Six Sigma / Lean Agile & Waterfall PM Claude & LLM-based workflows English (native) French (intermediate) Mandarin (basic) Hmong (basic)