Sandra H. Berry

Photo of Sandra Berry
Chair, Human Subjects Protection Committee; Senior Behavioral Scientist; Senior Director, Survey Research Group
Santa Monica Office

Education

M.A. in sociology, University of California, Los Angeles

Overview

Sandra Berry is a senior behavioral scientist at RAND Corporation and senior director of RAND’s Survey Research Group. She teaches courses on research design and methods for the Clinical Scholars Program at UCLA. As chair of RAND’s Human Subjects Protection Committee, she ensures ethical treatment of RAND research participants and compliance with regulations governing research with human subjects. She specializes in evaluation of mental health prevention and early interventions programs in California and rigorous studies of rare or hard-to-study groups such as women with BPS/IC symptoms, HIV patients, adolescents, and gay men and lesbians in the U.S. military. She has worked on the MOS study which developed many commonly used quality of life measures (including the SF-36); HCSUS, a national probability sample study of HIV U.S. adults in care; and a national study of costs of care for patients enrolled in government-sponsored clinical trials. Her recent work included measurement of functional issues in low vision, effects of media exposure on adolescent sexual risk behavior, home care giving for end stage pulmonary and heart patients, and long-range decisionmaking by public officials on topics where there is deep uncertainty. She is a member of the DHHS Secretary's Advisory Committee on Human Research Protections and has been a methodological advisor on statistical and data collection methods to the U.S. Census, the Centers for Disease Control, and several National Academy of Science panels. Berry received her M.A. in sociology from UCLA.

Research Focus

Recent Projects

  • Evaluation of CA Statewide Mental Health Prevention Programs
  • Evaluation of the Adequacy and Effectiveness of Common Rule Protections for Human Subjects

Selected Publications

Berry SH, Gunn PP "Conducting research on vulnerable and stigmatized populations," in Tourangeau R, Edwards B, Johnson TP, Bates N, Wolter KM (Eds.) , Hard-to-Survey Populations , Cambridge University Press, 2014

Berry SH, Elliott, M.N., Suttorp, M.J., Bogart, L.M., Stoto, M.A., Eggers, P., Nyberg, L. and Clemens, J.Q. , "Prevalence of Symptoms of Bladder Pain Syndrome/Interstitial Cystitis Among Adult Females in the U.S.," Journal of Urology, 2011

Berry SH, Bogart LM, Pham C, Liu K, Nyberg L, Stoto M, Suttorp M, Clemens JQ, "Development, validation and testing of an epidemiological case definition of interstitial cystitis/painful bladder syndrome," The Journal of Urology , 2010

Lever J, Kanouse DE, Berry SH, "Racial and ethnic segmentation of female prostitution in Los Angeles County," Journal of Psychology and Human Sexuality, 2005

Berry SH, Mangione CM, Lindblad AS, McDonnell PJ , "Development of the National Eye Institute Refractive Error Correction Quality of Life Questionnaire," Opthalmology, 2003

Schuster MA, Stein BD, Jaycox L, Collins RL, Marshall GN, Elliott MNN, Zhou AJ, Kanouse DE, Morrison JL, Berry SH, "A national survey of stress reactions after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks," New England Journal of Medicine, 2001

Bozzette SA, Berry SH, DuanN., Frankel, M.R., Leibowitz, A.A., Lefkowitz, D., Emmons, C.A., Senterfitt, JW, Berk ML, Morton SC, Shapiro MF , "The care of HIV-infected adults in the United States," New England Journal of Medicine, 1998

Berry SH et al, CMS Innovation Center Health Care Innovation Awards: Evaluation Plan, RAND (RR-376), 2013

Publications