Work History
Brief Summary...The majority of my work experience is built upon the diverse steps of the research process.
From initial experiment design to summarizing results, from running experiments to supervising a team of researchers, I have worked through multiple studies of varied interests and scales. With these opportunities I have gained expertise in the surrounding business and management needs required by any project, and have been able to integrate my artistic and interpersonal skills to coordinate and communicate goals, tasks, and results with my coworkers and varied audiences. Here is a showcase of a few research projects I've been directly involved in, some problems that arose around the way, and what each research team that I was a part of learned. Here is a showcase of my presenting skills and management skills. |
Research Project Showcase
Social Media, Risk Taking & Exploration
With the support of Dr. Jason Chein and a small research team at Temple University, I led a study which looked for connections between digital media use and behaviors related to impulsivity, sensation seeking, positive and negative risk taking, and exploration.
In addition to coordinating a team of five research assistants to run the study, I created a new exploration task within the game StarCraft, which allowed us to measure exploratory behaviors in a real time simulation. Using the data from this task, various surveys, and additional guidance from Dr. Michelle Chu during her time as a graduate student, we found evidence of a relationship between digital media use and a person’s willingness to explore, which may help us make more connections between innate exploration behaviors and various digital media habits. Pictured is an example of their limited viewpoint where they could gather resources they had found or explore an unknown area for potentially more valuable resources. This screenshot is shown accompanied by an example of the fully revealed area they could discover. For a full poster about this research project, click here |
Episodic Memory and Aging
When I joined the Kable Lab at the University of Pennsylvania, we had a large research team working on a complex study which included a wide demographic and multiple tasks during fMRI scans. Once taking over the coordination of this five year study, I established clear documentation and processes for data collection, and trained additional lab members to ensure consistency throughout the lifespan of the study. In addition to running participants, I trained other lab members on the process and worked with UPenn’s Institutional Review Board as the study continued. This study was also impacted by the COVID19 pandemic, which required us to make modifications to allow the study to continue safely and transition aspects of the study remotely while accommodating for our older participants.
The study compared three age categories: 18 to 34, 35 to 59, and 60 - 92 years old, and focused on their ability to discern and remember the generosity of a stranger through a money sharing task before determining if they would partner with the same stranger in a subsequent trust game. In the final paper, we found that older participants were more likely to trust their partners based on familiarity and appearance of generosity, rather than their actions. For a link to the full paper, click here |
Nudge away the Gap!
As a project during my Mastery of Behavioral & Decision-Making Sciences program, we were required to design and run our own study. Inspired by a paper that found that Women were less likely to enter a competitive environment and miss out on more lucrative job offers, we designed a study that would explore the effects of normative messaging on competition preferences.
Through Amazon MTurk, we performed an online study consisting of a 2 by 2 between subject design with 143 participants. Participants were randomly assigned to be shown a male or female messenger presenting either an empirical or egalitarian norm message, or a control group without any messenger or message. Unique to my other work, this project culminated in a policy brief, rather than an academic paper or presentation. I volunteered to design the final document, including custom illustrations and diagrams. Click here to see full policy brief. |
Presentation Showcase
Podcast Host & Interviewing Skills
Virtual Presentation Skills
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In my Organizational Essentials for Leadership class, I researched the challenges of joining a new company as a manager. I read relevant books and research papers about the topic, and organized it into this presentation.
This presentation has three main sections:
(18 minutes) |
Fixing Posters in the Lab
One of my colleagues was preparing a poster for the Society of Neuroeconomics in 2020, and while it was packed with great information, there were some aspects that made it difficult to follow. Some important details were omitted for space, the flow of information was difficult to follow, and the figures were not color-blind friendly, so I offered to help edit the layout and design.
The original and final versions are shown here. The layout was drastically improved to tie each second together and guide the reader through each aspect of the project. When designing any publication, it’s tempting to squeeze as much information in as possible, but often this can obfuscate what you intend to convey. My background in art and composition has been incredibly helpful when presenting complex topics in a complete, clear, and approachable way. |
Management Showcase
Flowchart Finance Organization
When I joined the Kable Lab, we did not have a system for tracking finances. While everything was recorded somewhere, it was inconsistent and disjointed which made it difficult to track which often led to duplicate financial requests and mixed up documentation.
In order to get all our finances and documentation back in order, I designed and implemented a system to track and manage all of the transactions required for all of our studies and the processes that support them. Not only did we now have a clear vision of our current finances, I developed a process to validate and reconcile the data with R code so we could be confident with our records. It took a significant amount of effort, but we were eventually able to straighten out 10 years of scattered financial history under the new system. This was a great opportunity to coordinate with the business office, fellow lab members, and other principal investigators, and streamline our processes to allow us to continue to focus on research without neglecting our documentation. It was also incredibly rewarding to see how it impacted my own work, and to know future lab managers inherit a stable foundation. This is just one example of organizational structure and process refinement I implemented at the lab. I also digitized 10 years of consent forms organized by protocol, reorganized digital data storage, and created a new lab website which you can find here! |
Communicating for New Product Line
Something that I find to be extremely helpful in managing people is clear communication, and a clear strategy on who to contact for adjustments to a plan. Fortunately, there was an exercise that was for one my classes within the Master of Behavioral & Decision-Making Sciences program that allowed me to express this sentiment. The example was inspired by two classes I took the previous summer called Organizational Essentials for Leadership and Product Design. The leaf shaped object in figure 3 was an item I created within CAD program and 3D printed out. That particular project was an amazing experience collaborating with engineers. Having a diverse group creating a new product was a super fun experience. |
Behavioral Science Consultation Meeting Example
During my Capstone core class for the Master of Behavioral & Decision Sciences, we learned about behavioral frameworks and how to apply them.
Given my background on behavioral science project management, I created a presentation on a hypothetical consultation meeting. This short presentation encapsulates a potential research plan for increase behavior of landlords taking housing vouchers. Though only hypothetical, I think it highlights my ability to come up with a plan, and reasonably state the different steps of a plan while provided an engaging presentation. Click here to see all the slides! |
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