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Our Team
Curt C. Braun, Ph.D.
Dr. Braun is the president, CEO, and founder of Benchmark. Dr. Braun has brought psychological and human factors principles to a variety of industries, including aviation, software development, public administration and research, and wildland management. In each field, Dr. Braun has worked to identify and shape the psychological and system design factors that promote human performance. Dr. Braun has been actively providing training to individuals charged with the management of the nation's wildland fires on topics including decision-making, team development, team processes, and human behavior in the fire environment.
Dr. Braun was a professor of psychology at the University of Idaho between 1994 and 2007, where he taught courses in the design of complex systems, research methods, statistics, and ergonomics. He maintains his connections at the University of Idaho as an affiliate faculty member. Dr. Braun holds a Ph.D. in Applied Experimental and Human Factors Psychology from the University of Central Florida.
Eric F. Shaver, Ph.D.
Dr. Shaver is a senior consultant specializing in human factors/ergonomics, safety, and research design/analysis. Dr. Shaver's work has emphasized achieving a good fit between people and technology to facilitate their safety, performance, and satisfaction. Dr. Shaver has expertise in safety information including the development and evaluation of warnings, instructions, and manuals; risk perception; human error and decision making; and the development and presentation of safety education and training materials.
Dr. Shaver holds a Ph.D. in Ergonomics Psychology from North Carolina State University and a M.S. in Human Factors Psychology and a B.S. in Psychology from the University of Idaho. Dr. Shaver is an affiliate assistant professor of psychology at the University of Idaho. Dr. Shaver is a full member of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES) where he has been an active member of the HFES Safety & Forensic Professional Technical Groups. Dr. Shaver is also a member of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Z535.3 Subcommittee on Criteria for Safety Symbols.
Elise M. Lind, M.S.
Ms. Lind specializes in User-Centered Design -- discovering what users need and translating those needs into specific requirements and functions. She has over 15 years of experience using multiple techniques to understand users' needs, design a positive user experience, and validate it through testing. Her interaction design techniques include Task Analysis, Concept Testing, Storyboarding, Prototyping, Heuristic Analysis, Competitive Analysis, Usability Testing, and Research Design and Analysis.
Since joining Benchmark in 2001, Ms. Lind has designed numerous software applications for a wide variety of users and goals. Her recent focus has been on designing web applications that enable inexperienced computer users to accomplish their tasks easily using the web. Prior to 2001, Ms. Lind worked for eight years as a human factors engineer at Intel Corporation, where she designed and evaluated a wide variety of user interfaces for personal computer hardware and software.
Ms. Lind holds a M.S. in Human Factors Psychology from the University of Idaho, and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin. She is a full member of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.
Paul F. Sorenson, M.S.
Mr. Sorenson joined Benchmark Research & Safety Inc., in May 2008 - bringing 23 years of experience in human factors engineering - and a passion for designing research which delivers insight to the creation, definition and delivery of innovative solutions that add human and business value.
Prior to his 14 years at Intel Corporation, Paul worked at IBM, Lockheed, and Hewlett Packard. His educational training is in Biology, Linguistics and Human Experimental Psychology, including an interdisciplinary masters degree from University of Oregon and PhD. work at the University of Texas at Austin.
Paul worked on the first personal computers at IBM and the first hand-held PC (100LX) at Hewlett Packard; Robotic vehicle & missile command/control and user interface simulation systems at Lockheed; and a range of technologies at Intel, including remote access and gateway servers, the first internet phone user interface and video phone and video conferencing products.
He has managed a variety of groups, from small start-up research teams to a consulting group of up to 40 people that provided HFE, graphic design and technical writing support for product groups delivering everything from CE devices (MP3 players, digital cameras) to new web-based data visualization user interfaces.
Josh M. McDaniel, Ph.D.
Dr. McDaniel is an ethnographer and science editor who specializes in technology development and adoption, as well as natural resource management. He has over 13 years of field experience in social science research using an array of qualitative and quantitative methods, including: ethnography, participant observation, structured and semi-structured interviewing, surveys/questionnaires, and stakeholder analysis.
Recently, Dr. McDaniel, as part of his work as science editor for Advances in Fire Practice, has been examining the use of technology and science in wildland firefighting. Dr. McDaniel has been using ethnography to observe how new user technologies are being used in the field - identifying challenges in the user interface, and barriers to communication between project scientists and field personnel.
He holds a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Florida.
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