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Patrick Thornton

Senior Social Science Programmer/Analyst

Patrick Thornton, Ph.D., is the lead programmer for SRI's National Behavior Research Coordination Center, Model Demonstration Coordination Center, National Effectiveness Study of First Step to Success, and Evaluation of First 5 Santa Clara County's Special Needs Project. Dr. Thornton also is a certified reviewer for What Works Clearinghouse and is currently reviewing research articles for the Data Driven Decision Making Practice Guide. Previously, Dr. Thorton managed data for the Statewide Evaluation of First 5 California Funded Programs. His primary responsibilities include data dictionary development, data cleaning, data management, descriptive reporting and inferential analysis. Dr. Thornton's programming specialties include SAS software (data step, macro, SQL, STAT), Microsoft Access, and Visual Basic for Applications with Microsoft Office.

A leader in the SAS software user's group community, Dr. Thornton was the Program Chair for the 2008 Western Users of SAS Software Conference. He is serving a 4-year term on the executive committee and has previously served four times as Section Chair, given 13 presentations, and been recognized with a Best Contributed Paper award.

Dr. Thornton has a comprehensive background in services research. He completed the 2-year Post Doctoral Clinical Services Research Evaluation Training Program at the University of California San Francisco, and continued working with the university for 4 years as a research associate with the Child Services Research Group. During that time, Dr. Thornton participated in several multiyear evaluations of cross-system services provided to youth with co-occurring mental health, substance abuse, and juvenile justice needs, including the California System of Care Evaluation.

Dr. Thornton completed a master's degree in criminal justice from Northeast Louisiana University and a doctoral degree in experimental psychology from Texas Tech University.