Jeff Dorsey’s extensive studies in statistics and two years of teaching the statistics to business students, provided a theoretical basis and an understanding of the importance of accurate statistics in developing effective policies and programs. Survey Research is often the best way to generate answers to problems affecting development. Jeff’s own dissertation involved interviewing almost two hundred farmers in Central Chile on changes in land use, tenure and employment over the period covered by the country’s agrarian reform. He worked also with a Chilean think-tank (CENDERCO) associated with Land Tenure Center staff and graduates on a number of farm level surveys, and he directed surveys for two regional governments in south central Chile in which hundreds of small and large farmers operating under various types of land tenure arrangements were interviewed. He directed a survey of 2,000 farmers and fishermen in Malaysia concerning their credit needs and repayment capacity. He has been involved in all stages of survey research from survey and questionnaire design, to selection of sampling frames and samples, field implementation and data-quality-control, pre-coding, data entry, analysis and report production. He also guided the impact evaluation of the Myanmar Microfinance Program in carrying out two quantitative and one qualitative survey and wrote a combined report analyzing all three surveys; donors subsequently expanded funding for microfinance activities.

Jeff brings fresh insights to every project that he works on, and makes every effort to organize and accomplish work in a way which brings projects in on-time and on-budget but without missing issues and opportunities which present themselves during the course of the work. For example, where basic information was lacking, he organized a small sample survey to obtain the data needed as the basis for a strategic plan for an organization in Uganda. He designed a farm-level survey of farmers and local government officials in Kyrgyzstan to provide guidance for policy and legal decisions concerning property rights.

17 February to 30 March and August 27 to October 17, 2011
Survey Design Analyst & Report Writer, Myanmar for village- and household-level surveys for an impact evaluation assessing the contribution of the Microfinance Program in improving the welfare of the families of clients, recommending program expansion, inclusion of other geographical areas and the design of new loan products. Also, analyzing the Program's role in reviving farming, business activities and employment in the wake of cyclone Nargis.

9 April to April 30 2007
Data Quality Expert, Managua, Nicaragua responsible for evaluating quality of export, domestic, sales and other indicators of financial success of USAID projects for raising rural income.

16 April to 19 May, 2006 and 12 August to 2 September 2006
Economist/Land Tenure Survey Manager, Kyrgyzstan for USAID responsible for the design, supervision and analysis of a survey of 550 farmers and local government officials concerning terms of agricultural leases, production, soil and water conservation and investment decisions on leased land and recommendations on improvements in leasing arrangements and the ultimate transfer of leased land to farmers.

November 1984 to February 1985 and April to June 1985
Socio-economic indicator's database developer, FAO, Rome, developing a database of rural development statistics.

July – August 1982
Research Assistant, Land Tenure Center of the University of Wisconsin, in charge of the production function analysis of a dataset from a farm-level survey of small farms and agrarian reform cooperatives in El Salvador.