Kalyn Su will enter the psychology PhD program in fall 2026 within the Social, Decision, and Organizational Science area, working with Dr. Nathan Cheek in the Choice, Inequality, & Policy (CHIP) Lab. She earned a BA in psychology with minors in sociology and peace & justice studies from Chapman University, where she worked in Dr.
Dr. Jordan Epistola is a postdoctoral research fellow with the University of Maryland and the Consortium of Washington Universities. Born in Seattle as a first-generation Filipino American, he earned his Ph.D. in Industrial-Organizational Psychology from the University of Maryland in 2022.
After graduation, Dr. Epistola worked as a Senior Data Analyst at Walmart HQ, applying I/O psychology principles combined with advanced analytics and machine learning solutions to automate processes, evaluate corporate programs, and identify insights to stakeholders.
Dr. Nathan Cheek (PhD, Princeton University) is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of Maryland, College Park. He studies how people make sense of their own and others' experiences and choices, with particular interest in biased beliefs that perpetuate and magnify inequality. Research in Dr. Cheek's lab has especially focused on people's beliefs about poverty and sexual harassment, and other recent work has investigated how people perceive their choices in relation to their identities and goals. Taking an interdisciplinary perspective, Dr.
Reante Talton (she/her) is a second year doctoral student in the Developmental Psychology Ph.D. program, working under the mentorship of Dr. Fanita Tyrell. Reante graduated from the University of California, Riverside in 2022, having earned her bachelor’s degree in Psychology with a minor in African American Studies. Following her graduation, Reante pursued another degree at the California State University, Northridge and obtained a master’s degree in Psychological Sciences.
Dr. Desiree (Desi) Jones is an Assistant Professor of Psychology and director of the SHINE Lab (Stigma, Human Interaction, and Neurodivergent Experiences) at the University of Maryland. Her research explores how autistic and non-autistic people understand and interact with one another, with a focus on stigma, identity, and masking in social interactions. She often centers the experiences of autistic people from underrepresented groups and uses both experimental and qualitative methods in her work. Dr.
Dr. Willis received his Ph.D. from the Clinical Psychology program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and completed an APA-accredited internship at Montefiore Hospital/Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He completed postdoctoral research training at Columbia University’s School of Social Work and University of Pennsylvania’s School of Social Policy and Practice, and he completed postdoctoral clinical training working with children and adults at Madison Park Psychological Services in New York City. Dr.
I am a Lecturer in the Social Data Science Major and Department of Psychology at the University of Maryland. Go Terps! Previously, I earned my Ph.D. in Quantitative Psychology and MS in Applied Statistics from The Ohio State University in 2023 where I studied mediation (indirect effects), moderation (conditional effects), dyadic data analysis, resampling methods, statistical power analysis, and data visualization. I have held numerous positions in industry and academia that have given me a unique approach to and view of research methods and statistics.
Dr. Terrill O. Taylor is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology and is affiliated with the Counseling program area. He joined the University of Maryland in Fall 2023 after completing his doctoral studies at the University of North Dakota and he completed his predoctoral internship at the Counseling and Mental Health Center at the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Taylor is also a former Scholar-in-Residence at the Institute for the Study of Race and Culture at Boston College.