CONSULTANT NETWORK

At FGA Research™, we elevate your research with our network of expert consultants. Spanning across the entire nation, these seasoned professionals bring a wealth of experience and insight to every project.

Adept at navigating diverse industries, there’s always a consultant tailored to meet your specific needs. Whether you’re conducting market, litigation, political, medical or any other kind of research, they deliver clarity and depth through expertly facilitated discussions.

BRENDA LAGAURTA

Lead Consultant Coordinator

Brenda Laguarta, lead coordinator of FGA Research™'s consultant network, brings over 15 years of expertise as a top qualitative consultant in Austin, TX. Renowned for her innovative work in marketing to women and consumer behavior, Brenda excels at organizing and connecting within the network, leveraging her extensive experience to drive impactful research. Her consultancy has enhanced brands like HEB and Nestle, while her commitment to community service and mentoring highlights her dedication beyond the professional sphere.

FEATURED CONSULTANTS

  • By creating empathetic, smart and efficient research, I help clients optimize their products and marketing efforts. My passion is creating an atmosphere of open communication and understanding with consumers. When you truly listen to their needs, you gain the insights necessary to thrive in our competitive and changing landscape. Having worked on the client, advertising agency and supplier side helps me anticipate what clients want to know. I'm proactive, reliable, and dedicated to making your project a success.

  • Tom helps premium brands turn customers into fans.

    He has over 20 years of experience in market research with expertise in new product development, UX, brand strategy, advertising development, and customer service. His collaborations with marketers and their advertising agencies have led to successful marketing campaigns including an Effie Award finalist campaign (for Farmers Insurance in the US) and a Telly Award-winning video training program (for Hilton Hotels).

    With a focus on qualitative research, he has developed proprietary methods to evoke personal stories and customer experience insights. He delivers reports, creative briefs, brand architecture, and brand positioning documents that are custom-tailored to client organizations.

  • Jessica Brylo is a litigation consultant dedicated to every plaintiff’s civil and criminal defense. She specializes in case framing, jury research, opening statement development, witness preparation, and jury selection.

    Over the past two decades, Ms. Brylo has spoken to thousands of jurors and conducted hundreds of mock trials, the results of which she uses to guide case strategy and framing on cases ranging from soft tissue injuries to 9-figure catastrophic injury cases and multi-billion dollar class-action lawsuits.

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    Ms. Brylo originally trained with one of the nation’s leading trial consultants, David Ball, Ph.D., and is one of a handful in the nation who has studied Arizona Project (1996) videos of real juries deliberating. She has a JD and Masters in Psychology, both from Duke University, and was previously a board member of the American Society of Trial Consultants (ASTC).

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    Ms. Brylo specializes in cases involving personal injury, car wrecks, wrongful death, medical malpractice, product defect, premises liability, trucking litigation, medical negligence, civil rights, mass torts, and employment law.

  • Cat Maxwell Smith is a seasoned qualitative researcher and moderator with over 20 years of experience helping organizations uncover insights that drive business success. She specializes in designing and executing research using the best-fit qualitative and quantitative methodologies to provide clients with the answers they need to make informed, strategic decisions. Experienced in working through organizations from start-ups to 100-plus-year-old Fortune 500 companies, she approaches every project with curiosity, precision, and a commitment to delivering clear, actionable insights that move the needle.

    She has worked across a range of industries, including:
    Technology • Healthcare • Food/CPG • Utilities •Finance • Retail • Non-profits

    Her expertise spans various qualitative methodologies, including:
    Focus groups • In-depth interviews (IDIs) • Ethnographies • Discussion Boards

    Cat’s collaborative approach ensures insights inform high-impact decisions across product development, marketing, operations, and executive leadership.

  • • Mexican-American Marketer; MBA, the University of Texas in Austin

    • Strategic

    • Emotional Drivers Guide 

    • Bold Innovation Hunter

    • Cross-Cultural Researcher. Adapts to the participants' culture and communication style to inspire them to be authentic and share their truths. RIVA Institute and Online Moderation Institute.

    •Innovative & Equitable. Drives innovation  & inclusivity within the research industry. Has presented at the QRCA, Insights Association, and Quirks Conferences. 


    Honored with the Thought Leadership Award by the Qualitative Research Consultants Association and the REEL Award, Research & Equitable Leadership, by Remesh.

  • Susan Fader is a business transformational catalyst.

    She has been helping clients get “unstuck” by thinking differently about the most mission-critical challenges that are impacting their business objectives. She is part gentle contrarian, part unorthodox iconoclast, part coach, and full-on spirit guide.

    Her unique approach uses Contextual Intelligence as a foundation, enabling clients to focus and visualize frameworks that redirect their energies around ideas that drive strategic action. She enables clients to ignite their strategies, by reframing baseline assumptions that provide an alternative, more transformative perspective that will impact how they see their business challenges, think about their customers and business opportunities, as well as design and think about research.

    She is as likely to be seen jumping out of a plane (with a parachute), cycling on a tandem bike with her husband on a multi-day ride, or reconnecting with campmates at Burning Man, as she is advising in the Boardroom, facilitating strategy sessions for Fortune 100 clients, and speaking on conference stages.  

    She consults with clients in the following business areas:

    • Foundational Research 

    • Brand Development and Strategy

    • Customer Experience Improvement

    • Change Management

    • Strategy Development

    • Business Model Transformation

    • Crisis Management

    • New Product Development Strategy

    Having designed, fielded, and reported on research in over 30 countries on five continents, she has deep domain expertise, demographic knowledge, and global category experience in a range of industry sectors including:

    • Consumer Health and Pharmaceuticals

    • Financial Services

    • CPG, Food and Beverage

    • Children’s products

    • Travel

    • Entertainment

  • Lauren Isaacson is on a mission to accelerate the growth of purpose-driven green technology and sustainable consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands. Her Vancouver-based market and UX research consultancy specializes in translating deep consumer understanding into strategic recommendations that resonate with eco-conscious audiences.

    With an MBA from Pepperdine University and over 20 years of experience, Lauren brings a unique cross-functional lens to complex business challenges. Her expertise blends market research rigor, user experience best practices, data-driven analysis, and brand strategy development to inform sustainable product innovation, marketing strategies, and customer-centric brand experiences.

    Forging Her Customer Insights Expertise

    Lauren's consumer-focused career began at leading Los Angeles advertising agencies, where she honed qualitative and quantitative research, and brand strategy skills as an Account Planner. She has since applied her talents across diverse client engagements:

    • New Product Launches for Automotive Brands

    • Optimizing the Customer Experience for Software Solutions

    • Consumer Satisfaction Tracking for National Brands

    • Informing Sustainable Website Redesigns for Multinational Technology Leaders

    • Brand Messaging & Positioning for Mission-Driven Organizations

    • And more mission-critical, high-stakes initiatives

  • Robert Ray is the founder and CEO of Veritas Research, L.P. As a trial consultant, Dr. Ray brings a wealth of experience to the table, both as a trial consultant and as a trial attorney. Since 1998, Dr. Ray has provided research and courtroom consulting to attorneys in cases throughout the United States. His consulting, theme development and strategy advice has been sought by attorneys representing individual plaintiffs to Fortune 500 defendants in national mass tort litigation. He has provided research and consulting advice in mass tort actions such as tobacco and pharmaceutical litigation to insurance disputes and entertainment and publishing cases.

    Dr. Ray received his Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of Nebraska’s Law & Psychology Program. Before his Ph.D., Dr. Ray earned his law degree at South Texas College of Law in Houston, and was a briefing attorney to Texas’ Sixth Court of Appeals. Before entering the world of trial consulting, Dr. Ray practiced trial law for over twelve years, and tried over forty cases to jury verdict. Dr. Ray’s doctoral research investigated the effectiveness of digital animation evidence in the courtroom. He received his Master of Arts degree from the University of Nebraska and his Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from The University of Texas at Austin.

    Dr. Ray is a member of the American Society of Trial Consultants and the American Psychology and Law Society.