Featured Alumni
Candice L. Thomas, Ph.D.
Ph.D. Industrial/Organizational Psychology, 2017
Current Information
Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Saint Louis University, St. Louis, MO
Current Position
I am currently an Assistant Professor at Saint Louis University. Saint Louis University is a private Jesuit
university with a strong Industrial-Organizational program in the psychology department. Because of that, I work with a great group of I/O psychology faculty and graduate students! In addition to my research, I teach undergraduate and graduate courses in occupational health psychology, personality, research methods, and training and development.
Career Highlights
I have coauthored journal publications and conference presentations on work-life balance, occupational safety, personality, and healthcare management.
Personal
My husband and I are currently enjoying exploring St. Louis and the Midwest region – there are so many unique historical, culinary, and outdoor things to do and see! I also do yoga and meditation, garden, and read.
Zachary Roberts
Ph.D. Industrial/Organizational Psychology, 2015
Current Information
Industrial-Organizational Psychologist at pymetrics, New York City
Current Position
I help clients see the potential utility and fairness of using AI and gamified assessments in the hiring process.
Career Highlights
Prior to joining pymetrics, I worked in talent management at a Fortune 100, where I supported the design, development, and deployment of leadership assessment and development programs. Before this, I was at the University of Houston earning my PhD in I/O Psychology where I also got the opportunity to consult with the oil and gas community and learn from world-class professors in the field.
Personal
On the weekends, you can catch me trying to find the ultimate NYC bodega, enjoying a concert, or being overly optimistic cheering for UofA basketball.
Emily David, Ph.D.
Ph.D. Industrial/Organizational Psychology, 2011
Current Information
Assistant Professor of OB/HR - China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) - Shanghai, China
Current Position
After spending 5 years of teaching undergraduate Emiratis in Dubai, I now teach MBAs, EMBAs, and Executive Education students at Asia’s best business school. Teaching at CEIBS has provided a welcome challenge, and I have also been able to meet new co- authors for my diversity and personality research streams.
Career Highlights
To date, my career highlight was earning an early promotion to Associate Professor after only 4 years at Zayed University in Dubai.
Personal
My husband, Diego, and I have been fortunate to travel extensively (our current count is 45 countries/ territories) during our time abroad. We also rescued a sweet puppy in Shanghai named Kaiba.
Aleksandra Luksyte, Ph.D.
Ph.D. Industrial/Organizational Psychology, 2011
Current Position
Assistant Professor, University of Western Australia, Business School, Perth, Australia
As an Assistant Professor, I teach Introduction to Human Resources Management to both undergraduate and postgraduate students, conduct research, do a little bit of service (I am a seminars’ coordinator for my discipline – Management and Organizations), and co-supervise PhD students with my esteemed colleagues. At UWA, we get a sabbatical for a semester every three years. So, currently I am on sabbatical!
Career Highlights
During my three year tenure at UWA I have been extensively collaborating with my research-active colleagues. This collaboration has been fruitful for me so far in terms of multiple grants (around $120,000), journal publications, and conference submissions, and a subsequent tenure that I received after three years at UWA. I also continue working with my UH co- authors. To further expand my network of collaborators, last year I visited several universities in China as an Australia-China Young Researchers Exchange Program fellow.
Personal
I and my husband Alex have been doing lots of Australian sports such as wind surfing and surfing (mainly Alex as I am scared of sharks), and of course playing tennis and watching it live in Melbourne during Australian Open.
Mindy Shoss, Ph.D.
Ph.D. Industrial/Organizational Psychology, 2011
Current Position
Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Saint Louis University, Saint Louis, MO.
I am currently an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at Saint Louis University, and have held this position since receiving my Ph.D. I conduct research on counterproductive work behavior, adaptive performance and job uncertainty, and interpersonal relationships at work. I teach graduate and undergraduate courses in occupational health psychology, personality, and training. I also mentor doctoral students, run a research lab, and serve on various professional and university committees.
Career Highlights
Along with Drs. Stuart Slavin and Matthew Broom from Saint Louis University School of Medicine, I received grant funding from the Institute on Medicine as a Profession, the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation, and Saint Louis University School of Medicine for an intervention to address resident and medical student professionalism at Saint Louis University. I was also recently invited to be a member of the editorial board for Stress and Health.
Personal
I enjoy spending time with my husband and our adorable maltipoo puppy. I love traveling internationally and trying different local cuisines. I also read spy novels and do yoga in my spare time.
Robert Stewart, Ph.D.
Ph.D. Industrial/Organizational Psychology, 2011
Current Position
Human Capital Consultant, PDRI, a CEB company, Washington, DC
PDRI is a consulting firm that specializes in conducting applied research and building customized solutions to meet unique organizational needs. As a Human Capital Consultant, my work puts me on a team of I/O psychologists that design and implement technical approaches in the areas of selection, leadership assessment, employee development, workforce planning, and program evaluation. My other activities at PDRI include client engagement, project management, and business development. My work includes a mix of government and private sector clients.
Career Highlights
The best part of my career is the opportunity to conduct rigorous work across a large variety of areas within I/O psychology. One of my most challenging projects was developing an online assessment in the form of a serious game, where users must solve a mystery related to the disappearance of a rare coin. I’ve also had the opportunity to co-author a chapter on using clinical psychological evaluations for pre-employment selection with colleagues from both UH and PDRI.
Personal
My wife Ashley Kaye –who I met at UH –and I live in Annapolis, MD. Our hobbies include hiking, camping, and travelling. We regularly visit with our UH alumni friends throughout the Washington, D.C. region.
Raenada Wilson, Ph.D.
Ph.D. Industrial/Organizational Psychology, 2011
Current Position
Organization Development Associate, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
I work on projects that support the selection, engagement, and employee development of individuals who work daily to fight cancer. As a consultant, I provide training in interviewing, selection practices, and mentoring. I also develop assessments for selection and development, conduct analyses regarding our testing data, and assist in the administration of our bi-annual employee survey and performance management system.
Career Highlights
I am still fairly new in my career and in my role at this institution. One of my major highlights was in my previous position at the City of Houston where we implemented the first employee survey and 360° assessment for one of the divisions in the Public Works Department. There have also been two more iterations of the employee survey since that first administration. Our work on that project led to some great initiatives and visibility within the department including the development of competency models for the division. One initiative was the development and administration of a career-pathing project for employees called FEDP (Field Employee Development Program); the program helped create a pool of candidates with the skills necessary to move into key positions.
Personal
I am really into LesMills BodyStep and BodyAttack. I also have a dog named Macy.
Sara Jansen Perry
Ph.D. Industrial/Organizational Psychology, 2009
Current Position
Assistant Professor - Department of Management - Hankamer School of Business - Baylor University - Waco, TX
I conduct research on employee stress and well- being, in the particular contexts of leadership, flexible work arrangements, and negotiation. I also teach undergraduate courses on the topics of Staffing and Negotiation.
Career Highlights
I graduated from UH in December, 2009 and earned the HumRRO Meredith P. Crawford annual fellowship that same year. From 2010-2014, I served as an Assistant Professor of Management at the University of Houston-Downtown in the College of Business.
During my time there, I taught management classes to undergraduates, including principles of management, management skills, and negotiation. I also taught online courses in the UHD continuing ed program, including negotiation and ethics. I also served in a leadership role in the expansion of the MBA program to offer five concentrations, which is now a robust, thriving program.
Since coming to Baylor I’ve been involved in advancing our Human Resource Management undergraduate major, in a number of initiatives at Baylor aimed at integrating faith and learning in the classroom and across campus, and have served as a faculty advisor for IF:Baylor (a women’s discipleship ministry under Baylor Spiritual Life) and Alpha Delta Pi sorority. I was honored to receive the Young Researcher Award for the Hankamer School of Business and the University-wide award for research productivity among tenure-track faculty, both in 2017. I really enjoy the strong Christian commitment at Baylor, which permeates the way we do everything – from preparing students to be future leaders, to interacting with colleagues.
Personal
I now live in Waco, TX with my 2 kids - Landon and Aerielle - and my husband Phillip. We just moved from Houston in 2014, so we are exploring Central Texas and all the beauty it has to offer. My husband is also building an RV-10 airplane, which we hope to use soon to fly to our favorite vacation destination, Red River, NM. In my free time (what little there is with 2 kids), I love to practice yoga and read.
Emily Hunter
Ph.D. Industrial/Organizational Psychology, 2009
Current Position
Assistant Professor, Department of Management in the Hankamer School of Business, Baylor University, Waco, TX
I love working for Baylor, where I teach Negotiating and Conflict Resolution to undergraduates, along with conducting research with many of my Baylor colleagues. Teaching in a business school has been exciting and stimulating, and I will soon begin teaching in Baylor’s online MBA program. Sic ‘em bears!
Career Highlights
I have coauthored journal publications on topics such as work-family conflict and servant leadership, and I was honored to receive Baylor’s School of Business Young Researcher Award in 2013. I also received a SIOP grant that same year. In 2014, I coauthored a book “Organized Innovation” that represents the culmination of research I began in graduate school. I’ve also enjoyed serving on SIOP committees to stay engaged with our vibrant community of I/O psychologists.
Personal
My husband Louis and I have two children that constantly amaze us and challenge us to be better parents and people. I also enjoy reading, traveling, and baking yummy treats.
Kathryn E. Keeton, Ph.D.
Ph.D. Industrial/Organizational Psychology, 2008
Current Position
I serve as an Innovation Strategist with Wyle, a contractor to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) at Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. It's a super fun job and I get to help identify innovations and strategies that we should implement at NASA as part of the Center of Excellence for Collaborative Innovation so that we can be more efficient and effective as an agency in solving problems and making long duration spaceflight a reality. I recently also started up a partnership with two other fellow UH alumni (Dr. Lacey Schmidt and Dr. Kelley Slack) called Minerva Work Solutions. We offer I-O consulting services and we hope to grow this partnership over time!
Career Highlights
I feel privileged to have worked with so many fantastic people at NASA in my 6 years there. My previous position was to manage a research portfolio aimed specifically at mitigating risk related to leadership and teamwork for long duration missions and it was amazing to get to work with such an array of interesting and amazing scientists, engineers, flight controllers and astronauts. I am also a licensed Psychologist in the state of Texas and have had the opportunity to present at numerous SIOP and space-related conferences and author a publication or two when I can (and they are accepted!).
Personal
As I telecommute full-time for my job, my family and I get to live in the beautiful northern San Antonio area in the hill country and we love it. My husband and I have a little boy and baby girl who keep us on our toes and we love to bits. We pretty much enjoy the usual: traveling, spending time with family, outdoor activities including boating and skiing, and of course eating great food!
Eric M. Dunleavy
Ph.D. Industrial/Organizational Psychology, 2004
Current Position
I am a Principal Consultant at DCI Consulting Group, where I am involved in equal employment opportunity audit and litigation consulting. I also serves on staff with the Center for Corporate Equality (CCE), which is a national nonprofit employer and research association based in Washington, D.C. My most recent work has focused on advanced quantitative analyses for assessing adverse impact and on selection procedure validation research in the context of OFCCP enforcement.
I am also an adjunct faculty member of George Mason University, where I have taught graduate courses in multivariate statistics and applied measurement, and at University of Maryland Baltimore County at Shady Grove, where I have taught a graduate course on legal issues in selection. I am currently involved in a SIOP task force responsible for developing a dialogue with EEOC on employee selection issues of mutual interest.
Career Highlights
I have served as President, Vice President, and Legal Chair of the Personnel Testing Council of Metropolitan Washington, D.C. (PTC/MW), and was on the editorial board of The Industrial-Organizational Psychologist for 7 years as co-author of the “On the Legal Front” column.
In 2011 I received the first Distinguished Early Career Contributions Award – Practice award from the Society for Industrial-Organizational Psychology, which is given to individuals who have developed, refined, and implemented practices, procedures, and methods that have had a major impact on both people in organizational settings and the profession of I-O psychology.
Personal
I live in Washington D.C. with my wife Dana (the more talented I/O Psychologist and UH alum of the family) and our son Jackson.
Mark Morris
Ph.D. Industrial/Organizational Psychology, 2003
Current Position
Director of Talent and Organizational Capability, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics
I lead five global teams including talent management, learning and development, leadership capability, organizational effectiveness and talent operations. As part of the HRLT I help set policy and strategy for HR and Aero.
Career Highlights
I've had the opportunity to create a corporate university from scratch, design an LMS, teach hundreds of thousands via satellite broadcasts, create and deliver leadership classes with our CEO and write and validate tests taken by millions. The business impact of these initiatives resulted in two chairman's awards and we were able to use the data with some academic partners to leverage a nice list of publications in Personnel Psychology and other journals.
Personal
I am married to Sandy and enjoy my amazing kids, Caroline and Colin in our north Texas suburb. We tend to spend leisure time traveling to favorite destinations like Disney, Hawaii and Europe with the extended family.
Lorin Mueller, PhD
Ph.D. Industrial/Organizational Psychology, 2000
Current Position
Managing Director of Assessment, Federation of State Boards of Physical Therapy, Alexandria, VA
I oversee a team of psychometricians, physical therapists, I/O psychologists, and other assessment experts in developing and administering the National Physical Therapy Examinations. We work with about 200 SMEs per year, which is great because PTs have an appreciation for sound measurement principles and they are fun to work with. In addition to our operational testing program, we support a research program looking at ways to provide effective feedback to examinees, predictors of success on the exam, fairness, test security, and psychometric research.
Career Highlights
Prior to joining the Federation, I worked for 11 years at the American Institutes for Research where I worked with some of the best and brightest professionals in I/O psychology and education. While there I developed a modicum of expertise in standard setting, and I have been lucky to have written a few book chapters on the topic. I was also lucky enough to work on a national study of teacher preparation in early reading, some pretty interesting employment equity work, assessing examinees with disabilities, school climate, national security issues, and lots of interesting job analyses. I had the great pleasure of working with the Society for Human Resource Management on several initiatives related to advancing the HR profession.
Personal
I live in Arlington, VA with my wife, two stepsons, and a son and daughter of my own. I've been lucky enough to travel quite a bit for work across the US, Canada, Europe, and South Africa. I try to keep in touch with my UH colleagues as much as I can, especially those of us in the DC area.
James Eyring, Ph.D.
Ph.D. Industrial/Organizational Psychology, 1994
Current Position
I am currently the Chief Operating Officer of Organisation Solutions, a consulting practice based in Singapore that serves clients throughout Europe, Africa and Asia. As a company, we focus on Strategy Execution, Leadership Development and Team Performance. In addition to running the Leadership Development and Team practices, much of my time is currently focused on executive coaching, accelerated leadership development programmes and workplace transformation projects. I also am conducting research on leadership in Asia.
Career Highlights
I started my career interning at Shell Oil and Dow Chemical while in graduate school. After graduating, I went to Pizza Hut/PepsiCo where I had roles in Organisation and Management Development as well as my first HR Generalist role. After moving to Asia, I led regional HR or the Learning and Development functions in Motorola, Ingram Micro and Dell.
I have had great positions and have hired many HR and I/O professionals over the last 20 years. Looking back, there were a few key experiences at the University of Houston that shaped me as a professional. The graduate programme provided abilities to integrate theory and concepts and to diagnose organisational challenges and identify solutions. My internships grounded me on what is important and how to get things done in organisations. Last, but not least, I still use the rigorous methods and statistics training I went through in solving problems and conducting research today.
The University builds a great foundation for a career in I/O.
Alison R. Eyring, Ph.D.
Ph.D. Industrial/Organizational Psychology, 1991
Current Position
I am the founder and CEO of a consulting firm established in 2000 and headquartered in Singapore. We work with global companies pursuing some sort of a growth agenda – supporting them in areas of strategy implementation, leadership & assessment, and team development. Our team includes more than 40 consultants in 5 continents. We employ a number of applied work and organizational psychologists from around the world.
Career Highlights
The first part of my career was spent as an internal OD/OE consultant and HRD manager. This is when I fell in love with large-scale organization design and change type work. For the past 15 years I’ve been an external consultant – but mostly my day job is managing my firm. Over the past 20 years I’ve taught MBA and EMBA courses in Universities in the US and Asia which I’ve really enjoyed. I’m currently an adjunct Professor at the National University of Singapore and have advised on a national HRD competency framework. More recently, I’ve led an effort to create a local community of applied work and organizational psychology in Singapore, and am helping to lead an effort to encourage and nurture these groups around the world.
Personal
James and I have been married for 25 years. We met in graduate school at UH. Clearly a side bonus of the program! We live in Singapore with our daughters who are now 12 and 9. We enjoy living in Singapore. In 2007, James joined Organisation Solutions as our COO which has been great for the company and our family.