Kristen Purcell is the associate director for research at Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project. She has a Ph.D. in Sociology from Rutgers University, where she specialized in mass media and cognition. At Pew, Kristen leads the design, implementation and analysis of nationally representative surveys, special population surveys, focus groups and interviews exploring the impact of the internet on Americans’ social and civic lives. She has authored reports on online news and information consumption, online video, and the burgeoning apps culture. Prior to joining Pew Research Center, Kristen was a senior survey researcher at Mathematica Policy Research and at Princeton Survey Research Associates International, where she designed and implemented national studies of critical policy and public health issues for foundations, non-profits, academic institutions and government agencies.