Field research on how people learn, are assessed, and stay motivated at work.

Learning is one of the most consequential things people do at work, and a growing share of it is self-paced and online. My work examines how attention, mindfulness, and self-regulation shape what people take away from training. It includes a 2×2 experiment in an air traffic control simulation that separates the effects of actual mindfulness practice from simply calling something “mindfulness,” and a conceptual model of mindful training that brings mindfulness theory together with established principles of learning science.

Organizations make decisions about selection, development, and promotion based on assessments. I build and evaluate those tools: defining what good performance looks like in a specific role, writing items that capture it, and testing whether scores are reliable, valid, and fair.

At the Naval Submarine Medical Research Laboratory I contributed to the Submarine Environment Fit (SUBFIT) assessment and to a leadership competency model for submarine command teams, along with a method for gathering criterion-related validity evidence for it. At the Center for the Army Profession and Leadership, I led the development and validation of leadership assessments that support Army leader development.

Self-determination theory holds that people need autonomy, competence, and relatedness. My dissertation, Barking up the Wrong Need, tested whether satisfying a need outside work that goes unmet at work produces better recovery. Using a time-lagged design and response surface analysis, I found that need satisfaction outside work predicted well-being and recovery overall, but it did not compensate for the specific needs that work left unmet.

I carried this line of work into two Defense Health Program grants as co-investigator, studying burnout, need satisfaction, and training success among submariners.

Good developmental feedback is expensive to deliver at scale. I’m exploring how large language models can be paired with validated assessment frameworks to administer assessments conversationally and generate personalized feedback, without giving up the psychometric standards that make the results trustworthy. I’m also interested in how these tools can help translate competency models into practical guidance, for example for service members moving into civilian careers.