Competitive Edge Research & Communication

John Nienstedt, Sr.

President

• Questionnaire design and script writing
• Project development
• Analysis
• Sampling
• Pricing and invoicing
• Project scheduling

Early in his career John Nienstedt (pronounced Neen-Sted) worked in local political campaigns, was an aide to a San Diego County Supervisor and managed a mammoth political phonecenter. He and a partner founded Competitive Edge Research & Communication, Inc. in 1987. John acquired sole ownership of the firm in 1991 and computerized the operation with predictive dialers in 1992. In 1994 Nienstedt earned his master’s degree in Political Science with an emphasis in social science research. His thesis dealt with the challenges of predicting voter turnout and is entitled “A Practical Strategy for Predicting Voter Turnout in Pre-Election Polling.” Nienstedt expanded calling capacity in 1995 and again in 1998 when he purchased CERC’s current headquarters. John and his wife married in 2000 and have a son. Nienstedt is also an avid baseball fan and racquetball player.

The 41 year-old native San Diegan is a featured speaker at campaign seminars and is frequently called upon by the media and other organizations to shed light on political and polling issues. Nienstedt has written articles for the San Diego Union-Tribune and Campaigns & Elections magazine. He is a member of the International Visitors Council of San Diego, Envision San Diego, the American Association of Political Consultants and the American Association for Public Opinion Research, attending all but one of the organization’s annual conferences since 1996. He received the SBA’s Entrepreneurial Success Award for 2000. In 2003 Nienstedt launched the KPBS/Competitive Edge Research San Diego County Opinion Assessment which takes the monthly pulse of local residents.

Shari Ciancio

Office Manager
Field and Focus Group Project Manager

• Administrative management
• Accounts Receivable management
• Facility management
• Manages payroll and personnel issues
• Field and Focus Group project management

Shari Ciancio (pronounced CHON-cho) is CERC’s front office voice and face.  She is responsible for managing all office operations, maintaining receivable accounts, managing company events, overseeing Focus Group projects, and supervising Field projects.  Shari has 17 years experience in the research industry as an Office Manager and Project Manager.

Ciancio studied business at Miramar College and accounting at Palomar College. She and her husband have a daughter who remained in Orange County after receiving her BA in English from CSU Fullerton.  

The whole family are avid novel readers and are especially fond of fantasy and science fiction stories.  So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that they’ve attend Comic Con every year since 2004.  Shari is involved in volunteer committee work and singing at her congregation, and when time allows she creates jewelry.

Ronald Zavala

Call Center Manager

• Interviewer scheduling
• Project management
• Quota control
• Supervision of support staff
• Personnel evaluation
• Focus group recruitment

Ronald Zavala is CERC’s newest talent.  He began his phone center career as an interviewer at Directions in Research in 1996.  Since then he has acquired a wealth of interviewing, supervisorial and management skills, having worked for Trotta Associates (qualitative research) in Orange County, SK&A (medical database) in Irvine, and Field Research (qualitative research) in San Diego.  In his most recent position, Ronald was Flagship Research’s (qualitative, quantitative and field research) Executive Director.

Ronald received his BA in Classics from San Diego State University in 1993 with an emphasis in Greek and Latin.  He was honored as the Outstanding Graduate in his class, Magna Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa.  Ronald also earned a Teaching Credential in the same subject from SDSU in 1994.  He was raised in Central America, is fluent in Spanish, and served honorably for two enlistments in the U.S. Navy as a Quartermaster (navigator’s assistant).  His interests include Mexican History and music, being an avid collector of live bootleg recordings and Bob Dylan’s music, in particular.

Sasha Tobin

Research Manager

• Data quality management
• Data weighting
• Data preparation and coding
• Report production
• Internet survey programing and administration
• Internet panel administration

Sasha is CERC’s  Research Manager.  She previously held the title of Research Associate at CERC for over a year.  Sasha is responsible for the data collected by the firm, as well as the production of fast, flawless and beautiful reports and charting.  She handles web survey programming and panel management, a new and expanding area for the company.

Sasha holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the College of William and Mary with a major in government and a minor in history.  While in school, she worked on a variety of academic research projects, including web surveys and archival research and spent a summer interning for a government contractor in Washington, DC.  Sasha was raised in northern Virginia and is fluent in Spanish which came in handy when she spent a semester studying abroad in Spain.  She enjoys traveling, reading, cooking and going to the convenient southern California beaches.