Provides services and technical assistance for students so they benefit from research-based curricula taught in safe environments.

Produces and disseminates information to provide motivation and tools to enable individuals to make informed decisions about health issues.

Develops and implements education testing programs that benefit students, parents and public officals.

Works with the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the government's primary source for collecting and analyzing data about public education.

Helps to provide all children with access to a quality education, and empowers people, organizations, and communities to bring about social change.

Is committed to helping clients improve the effectiveness of their workforce through a wide range of management, organizational, and business improvement efforts.

Sharyn M. Sutton, Ph.D.

Managing Director - Communication and Social Marketing

Dr. Sutton, Managing Director, Communication and Social Marketing within the Health Program of the American Institutes for Research (formerly president and founder, Sutton Group, LLC), has over 25 years of experience providing research, strategic planning, marketing communication, and evaluation services to government, nonprofit, consumer advocacy, and corporate organizations. She is co-developer of the Consumer-Based Health Communications process, which has been used successfully to create science-based, consumer-oriented communication programs for social change. Dr. Sutton has w orked on a wide variety of public health and health care issues such as quality improvement of health care delivery, end-of-life care, drug and alcohol abuse, covering the uninsured, cancer, diabetes, physical activity, obesity, food safety, and nutrition.

She has led many strategic planning initiatives for government, nonprofit clients and foundations, including: NCI’s mammography initiative, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s drug treatment planning, California Obesity Prevention Initiative, the National Campaign for Tobacco-Free-Kids, and AARP’s Active for Life initiative. For AARP she developed a model for its social change planning efforts.

In addition, Dr. Sutton has extensive experience building successful, strategic pub­lic/private partnerships. As director of nutrition marketing for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), she initiated the Team Nutrition campaign, building partnerships with Disney and Scholastic. At NCI, as part of the Once A Year For a Lifetime mammography campaign, she built partnerships with Avon, Revlon, the Auxiliary to the National Medical Association and YWCA. As a developer of the national 5 A Day for Better Health campaign, she created partnerships with the Produce for Better Health Foundation, which engages produce and grocery industries.