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Faculty
Nikita Arun, Ph.D.
Program Director and Assistant Clinical Professor
Email: narun [at] umd.edu
Dr. Nikita Arun is the Program Director and a faculty member in the IO MPS program. She received her Ph.D in Industrial/ Organizational Psychology from Virginia Tech. Niki has primarily worked in the applied research and corporate sectors at Marriott International, American Institutes for Research, Society for Human Resource Management, and Virginia Tech’s Department of Continuing and Professional Education. Most recently, she led an employee engagement survey program on a multinational scale and used a data-driven approach to make recommendations. Her work has also focused on test development, creating a variety of assessments to be used in a Selection process for non-management, management, and executives, job analyses, and workforce training. Her current teaching interests are in applied research methodology and organizational change. She is passionate about teaching how to translate and apply traditional research within an organization. She has a special interest in Diversity and Inclusion research and issues, and her past research has focused on motivation, self-regulatory processes, and goal setting.
Ken Yusko, Ph.D.
Assistant Program Director & Faculty
Email: kyusko [at] umd.edu
Dr. Kenneth P. Yusko is an expert in the design of personnel selection, development, and performance management systems and has helped Fortune 500 companies, small businesses, and government agencies, as well as professional sports teams and leagues to be more effective. Ken’s current clients include the NFL, the Sacramento Kings, Merck, Morgan Stanley, Lutron, and the Motion Picture Association of America. His research focuses primarily on improving the diversity outcomes, as well as accuracy, of employment testing systems. An example of his current work is the development and validation of league-wide psychological player assessments used by teams to improve their success rate in the NFL draft. Ken regularly publishes in scholarly journals and books and he and his team were recently awarded the M. Scott Myers Award for Applied Research from the Society of Industrial Organizational Psychology, as well as multiple International Personnel Assessment Council’s Innovations Awards for their work in developing and implementing the Siena Reasoning Test (SRT), a cognitive ability test that enhances both the diversity and quality of new hires.
Matt Montei, Ph.D., MBA
Assistant Clinical Professor
Email: montei [at] umd.edu
Matt started his career as an Industrial & Organizational Psychologist focused on Psychological Assessment and Leadership Development. He then pivoting and became a General Management and Marketing executive in the Consumer Products, Technology and Retail industries. His 20+ years’ experience include managing $1B P&L’s, leading high-performance teams, and leading globally awarded marketing creative. He has worked across 6 different categories in world class organizations including Mars Inc., SC Johnson & Amazon while leading iconic consumer brands like Skittles, Ziploc, Glade, Starburst, Pledge, Lifesavers, Off!, and Raid. As a marketing executive, he has delivered strong Marketing & Business Results through award-winning creative campaigns like “Taste the Rainbow” for Skittles and “Unexplainably Juicy” for Starburst; including 4 Super Bowl Ads. Matt’s career breadth has included dedicated roles in Strategy, Sales, Brand Marketing, Market Research, Business Intelligence & Analytics, and Organizational Development. Matt received his Ph.D. in Industrial & Organizational Psychology from Central Michigan University and his MBA from Marquette University.
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Meagan O'Neill, Ph.D.
Assistant Clinical Professor
Email: meagano [at] vt.edu
Dr. Meagan O'Neill serves as a Research Scientist for GSPM’s PEORIA project. She received her B.A. from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Ph.D. from Virginia Tech University. Her area of specialization is statistics and psychology, particularly the cognitive neuroscience of false memories. Meagan has focused her research on the Binding of Item and Context (BIC) model of memory and its implication for false memories. Her thesis used fMRI to understand the binding process in false memories, while her dissertation examined more complex contextual detail binding in two types of false memories using ERP. After earning her Ph.D., Meagan became a Lecturer at the University of Maryland, where she taught many classes, including the introductory statistics course. Meagan was hired to serve as a Research Scientist for the PEORIA project. She is responsible for creating and testing models to predict winners in future elections using fundamental predictors, as well as Twitter data.
Colin Cooper, Ph.D., CPC, Cht, Rmt, OM
Adjunct Professor
Email: drcooperassoc [at] yahoo.com
I am an Industrial-Organizational (I-O) Psychologist who uses multiple lenses, cultural orientations, world views, spiritual and metaphysical principles, and compassion to guide my work. I provide interventions, applied research, coaching, and support to individuals and organizational leaders, and members to create successful, humanistic, multicultural organizations that employ antiracist and inclusive practices, policies, and processes. I am passionate about social justice, designing and implementing inclusive talent and personal development programs and systems, and facilitating individual and organizational transformation. Additionally, I am committed to recognizing and implementing the conceptual framework of "encouraging authenticity, acknowledging organizational members as "whole-person" at work or within the organization's environment, and incorporating select universal, consciousness-enhancement, mindfulness, quantum physics, and energy principles and practices as an integral part of my professional interventions and writings.
My multiple life and work roles have broadened my perspective on how I define and do my work. A few of these roles include university professor, organization development consultant, talent and personal transformation coach/consultant, first African-American, female, doctoral graduate in I-O Psychology from the U. of Maryland, College Park, and a single parent. I am a retired-tenured Professor of O.D., Talent Development, and Psychology from Bowie State University. I am currently a graduate Professor of I-O Psychology at the U. of Maryland, College Park, and also serve on two other universities' faculty.
Over twenty-five years of applied experience as a manager, consultant, and professional staff at various profit and not-for-profit, small and large fortune 500 businesses and government agencies (Equitable Life Assurance Society, AAA of Michigan, United States Postal Services, Department of Army, and D.C. government.) has enhanced my academic career. My work products and accomplishments include the design and implementation of comprehensive interventions, programs, and systems in talent selection, management and development, instructional and curriculum design, training delivery and evaluation, leadership and coaching, individual and employee wellbeing, group facilitation, diversity, belongingness, and inclusion (DBI), and organizational culture change. I write, speak, and conduct research on anti-racism and oppression, DBI, social justice, consciousness, spiritual and quantum physics principles in the workplace for compassion building, engagement, inclusion, and innovation. I have co-authored the book chapter "Managing Corporate Racial Identity" and other articles on "African American career socialization, and barriers and facilitators for women and people of color in STEM career fields. I am a member of the American Psychological Association, Society for Industrial-Organization Psychology, Consulting Psychology, and Soka Gakkai International-USA. I have served on the various conference and federal grant review panels, community, and faith-based organization leadership teams, and boards.
Approximately six years ago, I founded Focus Hu-Energy Consulting, LLC (an Organizational, Talent and Personal Development and Transformation Consulting Practice) to provide consulting and coaching to organizations and individual clients committed to profound transformation and healing work. In this work, competency-based coaching, education, training, facilitation, and spiritual-energetic, quantum physics-based principles and teachings are paired with select O.D. and I-O interventions. This integration strategy reduces limiting belief systems, behaviors, system structures, and processes that may stifle innovation—conversely, compassion for self and others and passion for the work's intrinsic nature is enhanced. This transformational work fosters healthier, humanistic-cultures, relevant member's competencies, "values," and behaviors. Concomitantly, antiracist and oppressive practices can be reduced while wellbeing and organizational success are enhanced. The new cultural orientation then starts to focus on "we" versus "them" or "me" attitudes and behaviors. My training and certification as a hypnotherapist, Reiki master teacher, transformation and meditation coach, and Buddhist practice addresses the concept of the "Whole Person" at work (body, mind, and spirit) and guides my consulting and coaching. My training and certification as a hypnotherapist, Reiki master teacher, transformation and meditation coach, and Buddhist practice embrace the concept of the “Whole Person” at work (body, mind, and spirit) and guides my consulting and coaching.
Shannel Winslow, MPS
Adjunct Professor
Email: shannel.winslow [at] outlook.com
Shannel Winslow is an Adjunct Professor in the University of Maryland's Psychology Department for the IO MPS program. She is an alumna of the program, earning her master’s degree in 2017. Shannel is a People & Culture Manager at Fannie Mae and the Owner of Within Your Grasp Consulting, LLC. She is a skilled internal consultant and coach to all levels of the organization; specializing in the areas of workforce strategy, talent development, employee engagement, and organizational change. She has extensive experience in project management, design thinking and organizational development; working with company leaders at Fortune 500 companies to build out functional organizations that are scalable, agile, relevant and employee centered. She is a PMI (Project Management Institute) certified project management professional and a LUMA certified Facilitator of Human Centered Design.
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Juliet Aiken, Ph.D.
Adjunct Professor
Email: jraiken [at] umd.edu
Dr. Aiken received her Ph.D. in Industrial Organizational Psychology and a Certificate in Statistics in Measurement at the University of Maryland, College Park. Her passion for diversity and inclusion cuts across all aspects of her professional life, with a particular emphasis on attracting, recruiting, and selecting diverse talent. She is a Managing Partner at Conducere, LLC, a multicultural anti-racist anti-oppressive consulting firm, and the Director of Data Management and Analytics at Truth Initiative. In her consulting work, she builds selection systems that improve outcomes for organizations while reducing adverse impact, has served as an expert witness for the Department of Justice around disparate treatment, and drives aligned systemic change, often around issues related to diversity. She has worked with client organizations in the public (e.g., Jefferson County Commission; Federal Aviation Administration), private (e.g., Lutron, Merck, Mercer, Hogan Lovells), and non-profit sectors (e.g., Baltimore Job Hunters Support Group), as well as unions (e.g., Plumbers & Pipefitters Local 5; International Training Fund/United Association), and academic units and researchers (GLOBE research team, Association for Research Libraries). is part of the team that won the 2017 Innovation in Assessment Award from the International Personnel Assessment Council (IPAC) for "Hiring Quickly and at a Low Cost under a Consent Decree: Jefferson County’s Job Component Validity Research." Her work bringing I/O to professions where I/O is less prevalent and nurturing diverse talent within the I/O field was recently recognized with the 2020 Society for Industrial Organizational Psychology (SIOP) Early Career Award in Practice.
Podcast on Department 12 on I/O Psychology during COVID-19
Podcast on Amplified Research on I/O Psychology, Leadership, Crisis Management, Privilege and Professionalism during COVID-19
Paul J. Hanges, Ph.D.
Academic Director
Phone: 301.405.5930
Email: phanges [at] umd.edu
Paul J. Hanges, Ph.D. is Professor of Industrial/Organizational Psychology in the University of Maryland’s Psychology Department. He is also an affiliate of the University of Maryland’s R. H. Smith School of Business and the Zicklin School of Business (Baruch College). He was on the board of directors of OBA Bank from 2011 until it sold in 2014. Originally from New York City, Paul received his Ph.D. from the University of Akron in 1987.
Paul has worked with both public and private organizations (e.g., Central Intelligence Agency, Department of Transportation, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Personnel Board of Jefferson County, S. C. Johnson & Son) as well as various consulting firms (e.g., American Management Systems, Emerson Human Capital, Mercer, Inc.) and has been retained as an expert witness for several law firms. His work focuses on developing human resource practices (e.g., competence models, selection/promotion systems, training and development systems) and aligning organizational policies, practices, and procedures to produce desired organizational climate and improve organizational efficiency.
Guest Speakers
- Jo Wynter
- Jenna Patcella
- Blessing Awe/ Practicum
- Dan Eisen/ Practicum
- Tamika Hood
