Dr. René M. Paulson

René M. Paulson is a senior statistician and President of Elite Research, LLC, the founder of Divergent Web Solutions, LLC and PhDStudent.com, and a member of MomMD, LLC. She previously served as the executive director of the Center for Research Design and Analysis of the three Texas Woman’s University campuses in Denton, Dallas and Houston, TX. Her mission to empower the world’s researchers.

After earning a Ph.D. and Master’s degree in experimental psychology from Texas Christian University, and a Bachelor’s degree from Ohio University, Dr. Paulson spearheaded Elite Research, LLC, a women-owned small business with headquarters in Irving, Texas. For more than 15 years, her team has served a global clientele with their statistical, research, optimization, and editing needs. She realized early on the need to support students with collaboration before, during and after their PhD, introducing the community and resource based website, PhDstudents.com to the public in early 2012.

She holds Six Sigma certifications and memberships for several professional organizations, including Association for Women in Mathematics, American Evaluation Association, American Psychological Association and the American Statistical Association. Examples of her conference presentations include the Joint Statistical Meetings in 2014 and the Canadian Association for Health Services and Policy Research in 2012. In the fall of 2015, she will earn an honorary Doctor of Community Leadership degree from Franklin University for her dedicated work in the field.

Making a difference is at the core of who she is, and one of the main avenues for affecting change is through her work with nonprofits. Over the years, she has worked with a number of varying domestic and international nonprofits, assisting in everything from program evaluations to outcome measurements and (community) asset mapping. She has not limited herself to specific service types, but has taken on projects ranging from domestic violence and mental health to adolescent behavior and faith-based work. But setting up these projects is only part of what she loves about her work; the other part is imparting knowledge and skills to practitioners in order to help them do their work more effectively. Through her work with charities, she has been able to be a part of social change at the local, regional, and global level.

She and her husband Philip reside in North Texas with their adored golden retriever, Max. Although she often travels to teach or for research purposes, she mostly enjoys travel for the learning it brings. She has been to over 32 countries including North Korea, Namibia, and Lebanon. One of the more recent highlights was completing a marathon in Ireland

For speaking engagements or other direct communication contact her directly at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..