Lab Leadership + Core Faculty and Postdocs
Kody Manke-Miller
Co-Director
Kody Manke-Miller is an Assistant Professor of Teaching in the Psychology Department, and the Director of Research on Diversity and Inclusion for Dietrich College. He is interested in social justice and inequality, and uses social psychology to help understand and address the nature and causes of these issues in the real world. Using lab and field studies, he tests how people’s construal of social situations can have important effects on both immediate and long-term outcomes.
Kevin Jarbo
Co-Director
Kevin Jarbo is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Social and Decision Sciences. Kevin’s prior research used advanced brain techniques and analysis methods to study the role of the cortex and striatum in reward-based learning and decision-making in humans. His current research focuses on understanding how social factors influence academic decision-making, including help-seeking and procrastination, for students with negatively stereotyped identities.
Geoff Kaufman
Geoff Kaufman is an Assistant Professor in the Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. His research focuses on understanding the psychological/social impact of fictional narratives, games, and computer-mediated interactions and using these insights to extrapolate techniques and best practices for the creation of stories, games, and new technologies as “interventions” for social change.
Linda Babcock
Linda Babcock is the James M. Walton Professor of Economics. Her research is conducted at the interface between economics and psychology, with a particular focus on the understanding the causes of inequality in organizations and designing interventions to achieve equal opportunity and success. Her award winning books, Women Don’t Ask and Ask for It have been discussed in hundreds of newspapers and magazines and she has appeared on numerous television and radio stations. She is the faculty director of the Program for Research and Outreach on Gender Equity in Society (PROGRESS) and for the CMU Leadership and Negotiation Academy for Women.
CMU Campus Partners + Collaborators
Rosalind Chow
Rosalind Chow is an Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior and Theory at Carnegie Mellon University. She received her PhD from the Stanford Graduate School of Business in 2008 and joined CMU that same year. She is broadly interested in phenomena pertaining to social hierarchy and social justice, with a present interest in gender inequality in promotion processes.
Ayana Ledford
Ayana Ledford is the Director of Diversity and Inclusion for the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences and the Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy. Ledford has spent more than 10 years designing, executing and evaluating programs to increase the diversity of leadership and talent in academia, nonprofit and corporate sectors. She is the founding executive director of the Heinz College’s Program for Research & Outreach on Gender Equality in Society (PROGRESS), which develops programs that create a culture of excellence for all employees.
Current Undergraduate Research Assistants
Anyah Stempien-Smith
Anyah is a Decision Science major and a UNCF STEM Scholar. She also serves on the executive boards of SPIRIT and The National Society of Black Engineers at Carnegie Mellon. Her research interests are centered around using decision science, cognitive neuroscience and psychology to understand how minorities perceive and interact with their spaces and discourse in education, in order to motivate equitable education practices.
D3 Alumni
(in alphabetical order by surname)
Yo-Lei Chen
Yo-Lei Chen is a freshman in cognitive science with a computational concentration. She is also interested in studying human-computer interaction in the future. Currently, her research interests broadly center around the application of cognitive science in education, such as personalized learning. She is passionate about improving educational practices and developing innovative methods built around new technologies. Yo-Lei is also involved in the CMU community as a club officer in ScottyLabs, the research assistant for other studies, and a student photographer.
Chinemeh Eyiba
After earning a Bachelor’s degree in neuroscience in 2019 and her Master’s degree in Health Care Policy and Management in Fall 2020, Chinemeh now works as a Senior Consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton.
Leela Jay
Leela Jay is a sophomore studying psychology with intended minors in decision science and business. At CMU, she is on the executive board of the Activities Board and is responsible for organizing events for the student body. She is also actively involved in Spring Carnival Committee and Student Senate. Her research interests revolve around social psychology and how interventions can impact daily experiences for underrepresented groups.
Vicky Li
Vicky Li is a freshman studying in Finance with an intended minor in Computational Finance and Human-Computer Interaction. Besides being on the CMU Rowing team outside of the classrooms, Vicky is also a Finance analyst on the research board with Smart Women Securities. She is new to the field of research but is enthusiastically curious about research in psychology, particularly about how one's cognition and other psychological factors contribute to individual decisions that link with academic performance.
Tze Ling Ng
Tze Ling Ng (who goes by TL) is a Decision Science major with intended minors in Psychology as well as Politics and Public Policy. Her interests in research are informed by her love of volunteerism and community building, which she hopes to incorporate into her career.
Roshni Nischal
Roshni Nischal is a junior studying Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience. She is the Music Director for her a capella team, CMU Saans, and the Vice-President of CMU Om, the Indian cultural and spiritual organization on campus. She was also an undergraduate representative on the Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Planning Committee for Dietrich College. She has always been passionate about social justice advocacy, as well as Diversity and Inclusion efforts, and hopes to continue contributing towards the fight for social justice through her career.
Hv’n O’Neal
Hv'n O'Neal is a sophomore in Statistics and Machine Learning and Cognitive Science and minor in Neural Computation. She is also involved in the AI and Care Labor lab in the HCI Program, and a lab called Data 4 Black Lives in Pittsburgh. Besides being a driver for SPIRIT Buggy and a Tartan Scholar, she is involved in several clubs on campus, including being treasurer of the Effective Altruism club, Society of Women Engineers, Speculative Fiction Book Club, Ballroom Dancing, and Intervarsity. Her research interests are how to use statistics in a way that is not only unharmful to minorities, but can aid them. She is also interested in observing how minorities brains process discrimination, specifically in higher education; and how to mitigate the issues associated with microagressions, prejudice, etc.
Heitho Shipp
Heitho Shipp is an undergraduate studying Behavioral Economics, Policy and Organizations and Business Administration. In addition to being on the CMU climbing team, Heitho is a Carnegie Leadership Consultant. Her research interests include melding ideas of Behavioral Economics with social justice and civic engagement. Her specific areas of interest include representation of different identities both in academic and social settings. Heitho feels most at home in a bookstore or a tea shop.
Dr. Alexandra To
Alexandra To earned her PhD from the Human-Computer Interaction Institute at CMU in 2019 and joined the faculty at Northeastern University as an Assistant Professor in Fall 2020. She uses frameworks from HCI, critical race theory, game design, racial justice, and intersectionality in her work designing social technologies to empower people in marginalized positions to reduce and resolve uncertainty.
Ben Schenck
Past Research Manager of the D3 Lab and the BEDR (Behavioral Economics and Decision Research) Policy Lab. In 2020, Ben began a position in program design and data analysis at the Allegheny County Department of Human Services.