Brian Harward, PhD

Background

I teach and consult on research methods and statistics. Along the way I received the Distinguished Faculty Award for teaching statistics, served as Director of Research at San Diego University for Integrative Studies, and worked as a Research Scientist at Ethical Systems, NYU Stern School of Business.

More than 200 doctoral students have worked with me through their analysis and defense. Most were working professionals in their thirties, forties, and fifties, studying at online or professional programs while holding a job, and most arrived convinced that statistics was the part of the degree they were going to fail at. Almost none of them were right about that.

Philosophy

Statistics is not a talent. It is a set of decisions, each with a reason, and reasons can be taught. When a student tells me they are "not a numbers person," what they usually mean is that nobody ever explained the decisions, only the formulas.

So I work the other way around. We start from your research question, decide what would count as an answer, and choose methods that can actually produce one. The software comes last and matters least.

Why I won't just do it for you

A dissertation you cannot explain is not finished, however clean the tables are. You will sit in a room and be asked why you chose that model. My job is to make sure that question is an easy one. That means you have to be in the work with me, and I have to be someone who explains rather than someone who delivers.

How I work

This is a one-person practice, by design. You get the same person on the first reply and at the defense rehearsal. Nothing is subcontracted, nothing goes overseas, and your data is never sent to an AI company. Quotes are flat-rate, agreed before any work begins, and they do not change.

Beyond this practice, my research and writing live at brianharward.com, and my full career history and recommendations are on LinkedIn.

Because you don't love statistics, but I do!