Dr. Sonja Ziniel is the senior survey methodologist of Children's Hospital Colorado and has an appointment as assistant research professor in the Department of Pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Hospital Medicine, at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. She received her MA in administrative science with an emphasis in evaluation research from the University of Konstanz in Germany and her PhD in survey methodology from the University of Michigan in 2008. Before joining the University of Colorado in 2015, she worked as a senior survey methodologist at Boston Children’s Hospital and had an appointment as instructor at the Harvard School of Medicine.

Dr. Ziniel’s research focuses on methodological issues in survey design. She has developed and psychometrically validated several survey instruments, such as the Pediatric Integrated Care Survey (a widely used tool to measure parental views care integration), and the EBP-Quick-VIK (a tool to assess nursing values, knowledge and implementation of evidence-based practice). In addition, during her 10 years as survey methodologist and applied statistician within academic medicine, she has collaborated with and mentored clinicians and researchers from a variety of disciplines resulting in over 50 publications. Dr. Ziniel is passionate about providing high-quality data to decision makers at all levels and maximizing their use. 

Her strategies to keep burnout levels low and compassion levels high include always having German chocolate available, spending time in the Rocky Mountains, traveling and tending to the ever-increasing number of animals on her hobby farm.