Westat

Westat is an employee-owned professional services corporation located in Rockville, Maryland. It provides research services to government agencies and businesses. The corporation conducts research studies in behavioral health & health policy, clinical trials, education, public health & epidemiology, social policy & economics and transportation.

History
Westat Inc. began as a partnership in 1961 with co-founders Edward C. Bryant, a University of Wyoming statistics professor and two former students, James Daley and Donald King. In 1963, the company was incorporated. Bryant served as the company's first president until 1978, when Joseph Hunt took over as president for the next 32 years. In 1981, Westat moved to its present location in Rockville, Maryland.

In May 2011, James E. Smith, became president and CEO of the company. Graham Kalton, stepped down as chairman of the board in 2019, and was replaced by Smith. Scott Royal, became the CEO and President of the company in March 2020.

In June 2023, Renee F. Slobasky succeeded Smith as chair of the board.

Recent acquisitions
In 2015, Westat acquired education research and technical assistance specialist, Edvance Research, and information technology solutions company Fenestra. Healthcare data analytics firm, JEN Associates, was acquired in February 2018. The acquisitions were for an undisclosed amount.

In June 2022, the company acquired Insight Policy Research (Insight) which operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of Westat, known as 'Westat Insight'.

Research activities
Westat conducts studies on respondent knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors, program evaluation, physical, mental, and behavioral health, academic achievement t and literacy, early childhood longitudinal studies, child abuse and neglect, medical treatments and outcomes, exposure assessments,  and information management and communications solutions. The company supports two software packages, WesVar and Blaise. The former is a variance estimation software while the latter is a survey processing system.

The company also has a life sciences division that focuses on supporting clinical trials and research on vaccines, pediatric studies, rare and emerging disease, oncology, and infectious diseases for the biopharmaceutical industry. The company also conducts research on COVID-19 and vaccines. The company also conducted an analysis on pedestrian deaths in association with Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA), in April 2022.

Corporate structure
Westat is employee-owned. All employees can earn a share of ownership through the Westat Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP). Since the introduction of the plan in 1977, the value of employee holdings has grown.

Recognition and claims
Westat was the recipient of the Policy Impact Award by the American Association for Public Opinion Research in 2011 and 2014, for survey work that informed the Senate debate which led to the repeal of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” and for the National Prison Rape Statistics Program as one of the contractors to U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), respectively.

In September 2014, Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs discovered, during a scheduled audit of Westat, that the company systematically failed to provide equal employment opportunities to women applicants and applicants with other ethnicities for various positions between the period of October 2008 to September 2009. Under the terms of the settlement, Westat paid $1,500,000 in back wages and interest to all affected applicants, made 113 job offers to the original class members as positions become available, corrected record-keeping violations and conducted internal audits.