Lab Members

Emilee Shiver

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Emilee will graduate in Spring 2027 with plans to pursue a PhD in social psychology afterwards. During her first semester in lab, she will be working on a project examining how a social norm intervention can increase course evaluation participation.

Olivia Thomas

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Olivia graduated in Spring 2022 with a B.S. in Psychology. Olivia played a role in the SoTL project examining how social norms could impact course evaluation completion. She is currently working as a Waiver Case Manager with Connections. She helps individuals with disabilities find necessary resources like respite, behavior management, music therapy, etc.

Alexandria Etienne

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Alexandria graduated in Spring 2023 with a dual degree in Psychology and Biology. During her time in the lab, Alexandria designed a project to test if descriptive norms could impact mental health treatment seeking. Alexandria received Endeavor funding for this project and presented her work at the Endeavor conference here at USI in 2022 and 2023. After graduation, Alexandria joined the University of Evansville's PsyD program in the Fall 2024 semester with the goal of becoming a licensed clinical psychologist.

Sabrina Yamashita

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Sabrina graduated in Spring 2023 and joined the University of Evansville's PsyD program in Fall 2023. During her time in the lab, she's helped run studies examining social norms' effects on course evaluations, and the effectiveness of feedback. This culminated at a presentation at USI's Endeavor Conference and the Midwestern Psychological Association in Spring 2023.

Keely Winkler

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Keely graduated in Spring 2023 with a B.A. in Psychology, and now works as a psychometrist at LifeStance Health in Evansville. During her time in the lab, she designed a project that examined how social norms influence participation in conspiracy theories.

Lily Robbins

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Lily graduated in Fall 2024 with plans to pursue graduate school and eventually become a psychology faculty member. During her time in lab, she helped run studies examining social norms effects on course evaluations which culminated in a presentation at the USI Psi Chi Conference in Fall 2024.

Omaima Khan

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Omaima graduated in Spring 2025 with plans to attend medical school. During her time in lab, she designed a project examining causal perceptions of various types of cancer. This project culminated in earning an Endeavor Award from USI and giving a presentation at the MPA conference in Chicago in April 2024.

Dr. Ed Hirt

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Dr. Hirt is a professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Indiana University. His research spans self-protection, self-regulation, creativity, and decision making. Click here to learn more about his work!

Samantha Heiman

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Sam is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Cornell College. She studies social norms and the ways in which identity impacts adherence to these norms. She is also broadly interested in processes related to conceptualizations of identity and the self. For more information about her work, click here!

Dr. Colleen Hughes

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Dr. Hughes is an Assistant Research Scientist in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Indiana University. Her work investigates the social cognitive neuroscience of normative and non-normative aging using behavioral, neuroimaging, and network science methods. For more information about her work, click here!

Dr. Katie Kroeper

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Dr. Kroeper is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Sacred Heart University. Her research research identifies and addresses social inequities between those traditionally advantaged and those traditionally disadvantaged in society. To this end, she uses multiple methods (experiments, surveys, interviews, and audit studies) to examine social issues from a variety of perspectives (target, perceiver, and organizational). For more information about her work, click here!