Nationwide Center for Advanced Customer Insights

Research Team

Ralph Greco

Director
Ralph Greco is the Director of the Nationwide Center for Advanced Customer Insights, as well as the Director of the Business Analytics Initiative at Fisher College. He also leads the Business Analytics Industry Cluster.

Prior to joining Fisher, Greco was a client executive for IBM and a business unit executive for the company’s North American channels. He was a vice president of worldwide business development for Sterling Commerce, which was acquired by IBM in 2010. He has also held a senior leadership role at Accenture, where he led efforts to create and manage technology alliances with clients in both the private and public sectors.

David Weiner

Co Executive in Residence
David Weiner helps to manage the Center from the Nationwide Insurance perspective.  As the Co Executive in Residence, David is the connection between Nationwide and the Center’s research activities. In this role, he is responsible for fully utilizing the Center's insights to help Nationwide's business partners make data-driven decisions to improve business outcomes.

Jingyu Song

 

Co Executive in Residence
Jingyu Song  helps to manage the Center from the Nationwide Insurance perspective.  As the Co Executive in Residence, Jingyu  is the connection between Nationwide and the Center’s research activities. In this role, she is responsible for fully utilizing the Center's insights to help Nationwide's business partners make data-driven decisions to improve business outcomes.

Aimee Yoon

Research Coordinator, Nationwide Insurance
Dr. Yoon is the Director overseeing Internal Audit's analytic function at Nationwide Insurance. Prior to working at Nationwide, she earned a doctorate in Sociology from The Ohio State University. Prior to Nationwide, Dr. Yoon worked as a data scientist specialist at Accenture.  Prior to her graduate program at Ohio State, Aimee earned a B.A. in Sociology from UCLA, a Master's in Sociology from CSUF and taught sociology classes at Coast Community College and Mt. San Antonio College.

Mike McCaslin
Research Coordinator, Nationwide Insurance
Dr. McCaslin is a Director of Marketing Research on the Customer Analytics team in Nationwide. He works to fully leverage the insights and findings from the Center in supporting Nationwide management decision making and improving business performance.

Prior to joining Nationwide, Mike was a former Graduate Research Associate with the Center during his time studying for his PhD at OSU.

Mike earned a doctorate in Psychology from The Ohio State University.

Tim Welch

Administrative Associate
As administrator of the center, he is in charge of all human resources and financial functions. He has bachelor's degrees in Biology and Psychology. He has extensive office management experience and taught classes on Microsoft Office and Office Management for more than five years at a community college.

NCACI Graduate Students

Abigail Greff
Graduate Research Associate, Department of English
Abigail Greff is a Ph.D. student in Ohio State's Department of English. Before coming to Ohio State she earned a B.A. in English from the University of Puget Sound.  She also has an M.A. in English from Boston University.

Bo Luan
Graduate Research Associate, Department of Statistics

Bo Luan is a Ph.D. student in Ohio State's Department of Statistics. Before coming to Ohio State he earned a B.S. in Mathematics from the Wuhan University.  He also has earned an M.S. in Statistics from The University of Chicago.

Brendan Matthew Galdo
Graduate Research Associate, Department of Psychology
Brendan Galdo is a Ph.D. student in Ohio State's Department of Psychology. Brendan eared a B.S. in Neuroscience from the The Ohio State University.  He also has earned a Master in Applied Statistics from The Ohio State University.

Chenxi Zhou
Graduate Research Associate, Department of Statistics
Chenxi Zhou is a is a Ph.D. student in Ohio State's Department of Statistics. Before coming to Ohio State he studied Sociology at East China Normal University.  He then matriculated to The Ohio State University where he earned B.S. in Mathematics and Economics, with a Statistics minor.

Clinton Morrison
Graduate Research Associate, Department of English
Clinton Morrison is a PhD candidate in the Department of English at OSU. Prior to OSU he received a B.A. in English Literature & Language, with a Political Science minor from Sam Houston State University. He then went on to earn a M.A in English Literature from Texas Tech University.

Heather Frazier

Graduate Research Associate, Department of English

Heather Frazier is a Ph.D. student in the Department of English at Ohio State. She has also earned a M.A. in English from Ohio State.  Before joining OSU, Heather earned an B.A. in English from Concord University.

Kathryn Hoisington-Shaw

Graduate Research Associate, Department of Psychology

Kathryn is a current PhD candidate in OSU’s Quantitative Psychology program. She previously earned her master’s in both applied statistics and psychological science at OSU and California State University San Marcos, respectively. Her current areas of research include sequential testing, statistical graphics, and creating accessible pedagogical tools for statistical concepts.

In her spare time, Kathryn enjoys hiking, exploring new restaurants, and training her corgi puppy, Juno. 

Kumar Somnath

Graduate Research Associate, Department of Statistics

Kumar is a PhD candidate in Statistics at The Ohio State University. His research work involves developing exact simulation algorithms for constrained Brownian motion processes and solutions to Stochastic Differential Equations. Kumar was born and brought up in northern India and finished his undergraduate studies in applied math from the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur.  

Prior to starting his PhD he worked for a couple of years at the brokerage Nomura as part of derivatives structuring team and later as a Prime Ministers’ fellow for the department of rural development. In his free time, he likes to bike on the Olentangy and Scioto trail and plans to hit 100 miles in a day hopefully by the end of this summer. 

 

Lindsay Hodgens
Graduate Research Associate, Department of English

Lindsay Hodgens is a Ph.D. student in the Department of English at Ohio State. She has also earned a M.A. in English from Ohio State.  Before joining OSU, Lindsay earned an B.A. in English and Sociology from the University of Montevallo

Mackenzie Weiler

Graduate Research Associate, Department of Political Science

Mackenzie just finished her 3rd year in the Political Science PhD program at Ohio State. Her dissertation studies Congress and how ideologically extreme factions are influencing the two-party system. She has also spent the last 2.5-ish years as a research assistant working on a project for the National Institute of Health predicting outcomes for incarcerated individuals with substance abuse disorders.

Outside of data and political science, Mackenzie's true passion is international backpacking. She speaks mediocre Russian and German, and most recently returned from studying Russian in Kazakhstan on a language grant from the Department of Education.   

Manny Jacquez

Graduate Research Associate, Department of English

Manny Jacquez is a Ph.D. student in the Department of English at Ohio State. He has also earned a M.A. in English Literature from Ohio State.  Before joining OSU, Manny earned an B.A. in English Literature from California State University, Fresno.

Matthew Spearly

Graduate Research Associate, Department of Political Science

Matt Spearly is currently a fifth-year PhD candidate in the Department of Political Science at Ohio State University. His dissertation research examines the political economy of social policy—such as antipoverty programs, unemployment insurance, and pensions—in the context of contemporary Latin America. During his graduate studies, he developed and taught a course on the politics of globalization; completed methodological trainings at the University of Michigan and Syracuse University; and conducted field research in Argentina. 

Prior to attending Ohio State, Matt received his bachelor’s degree from West Virginia University, and served for a year as an AmeriCorps VISTA member working with nonprofit organizations throughout West Virginia. In his free time, Matt enjoys cycling, cooking, and playing music.  

 

Ricardo Graiff-Garcia

Graduate Research Associate, Department of Political Science

Ricardo  is a PhD student in Ohio State's Political Science Department. The Ohio State. He has also received a M.A. in Political Science from OSU.  His first M.A. in Political Science was earned from Ohio University.  He earned a B.A. in International Relations from Fundação Armando Alvares Penteado.

Victoria Dikeman

Graduate Research Associate, Department of English

Tori is a Ph.D. student in the Department of English at Ohio State. She has also earned a B.A. in English Literary Studies from Bucknell University..  She also received an A.A. in Arts & Humanities from Lehigh Carbon Community College.

NCACI Undergraduate Students

Kelsey Mayes
Student Research Analyst, Department of Statistics
Kelsey Mayes is working with Nationwide Insurance's User Experience group.  She is pursuing a Bachelor's in Psychology while at Ohio State.