Develop initiatives focused on learning, development, and retention. Employ research methods to explore and address issues and provide data-informed recommendations to leadership on the effectiveness and efficiency of human capital training and development programs for mission critical occupations.

Developed initiatives to address organizational learning, development, and retention goals for mission-critical occupations across the agency. Assessment Lead on major agency initiative to develop senior leaders.Specific activities included:• Evaluated the effectiveness and efficiency of human capital development and training programs.• Provided top quality customer service to clients through superior technical work and consultative skills, as well as effective project management and communication skills• Performed workforce analyses to describe current states, predict future trends, and inform business decisions

Provided technical oversight and expertise to enhance organizational effectiveness and productivity, including conducting analytical studies in support of workforce planning and organizational initiatives using models and theories of industrial/ organizational psychology. Specific activities included:• Directed high-stakes hiring and selection assessments (e.g., Situational Judgment Tests, Job Simulations, Multiple Choice exams) for mission-critical occupations administered to tens of thousands qualified candidates across the U.S. • Balanced the hiring needs of internal customers (e.g., business offices, executive leadership) in terms of quantity/quality of new hires with legal defensibility/adherence to EEO guidelines.• Developed the Career Assessment Program aligning employee interests, skills, and values to organizational needs for increased person-job fit, organizational commitment, engagement, employee development, and talent retention.• Directed job analyses, competency modeling, skills gap and training needs assessments, adverse impact analyses, item analysis, exploratory factor analysis, and criterion validation studies to show utility/ROI.• Led a diverse team of personnel psychologists and instructional designers on Congressionally driven initiative to standardize training across the service for the newly established IRS University.

Education Team at JIDO/Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA)Chief Psychometrician for the Joint Counterintelligence Training Activity (JCITA, formerly JITAC) program under the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) of the Department of Defense (DoD)/Intelligence Community (IC). This Council on Occupational Education (COE) accredited training course provides full spectrum joint and advanced CI training (operations, collections, investigations, functional services, analysis), offering in-residence courses, mobile training teams, and distance/distributed learning opportunities with rigorous assessments meeting strict psychometric standards.

Directed assessment development and validation research studies to evaluate the effectiveness of existing HR systems and tools, applying my expertise in test theory, psychometric methodology, and statistics to advise leadership on best practices in hiring, retention, and workforce analysis. Inherent in this role in advising stakeholders and leadership, was ensuring all mandated laws, rules, and regulations were properly assessed for potential impact on work initiatives.

Directed large-scale research program for SurfPAC (Surface Ships in the Pacific) to uncover the decision-making processes of leaders and watch-standers in normal and stressful team environments. Developed 2 new assessment tools to guide policy decisions on training, education, and operations fleetwide:• Developed a new risk grading system to determine the extent of organizational drift from the designed safety system and provided recommendations to Commanders and stakeholders for essential interventions. • Designed two new, customized assessment tools: (1) Organizational Drift Instrument (ODI) to measure the drift from safety norms; and (2) Operational Fundamentals Behavioral Checklists (OFBC) to be used by watch-standers on the Bridge and in CIC, offering a standardized way to measure performance in daily operations in a team setting.• Developed competency model aligned to the ODI and OFBC to establish a well-articulated model of watch-stander competencies and meta-competencies aligned with a culture of safety performance. These instruments allow COs and others to pinpoint areas where training and other interventions are urgently needed to prevent further decline in overall operational readiness and/or risk management (i.e., prevent future mishaps/collisions at sea).

Project Manager for 26 projects (10 mission-critical occupations). Oversaw all planning, development, validation, and implementation of psychometrically sound assessment tools across the TSA to comply with all technical and legal guidelines and best practices.• Served as Project Director on 10 mission-critical projects, including the Congressionally mandated high-stakes (certification) Image (Xray) testing program for the screening workforce of TSA (50,000+ Transportation Security Officers or TSOs) across all U.S. airports. Directed all phases with extensive oversight of vendor (Northrup Grumman) and travel, from project execution through milestone delivery to include 2-3 pilot studies/year across 70+ U.S. airports ($20M annual budget). • Developed organization-specific model of Employee Engagement based upon historical (FEVS etc.) data and relevant research. Designed survey, wrote items for development of the Employee Engagement Survey (EES) administered across TSA (HQ, FAMS, Airports) to 60k employees; conducted exploratory factor analysis and confirmed 6 key drivers of Employee Morale, a multidimensional factor (Employee Engagement, Job Satisfaction, and Organizational Commitment,) each having unique relationships to the key drivers and to important organizational outcomes. Presented results/recommendations to leadership/stakeholders across levels to drive action planning and best practices.• Directed the development and implementation of an innovative approach to a competency-based online selection and hiring battery for a newly developed job position at TSA, the Explosive Detection Canine Handler (EDCH). The speed of the timeline from conception to implementation set new records in Human Capitol, such that it was adopted as the exemplar for others to follow. Before leaving TSA, I also guided junior team members and contractors to conduct the criterion validation study, adverse impact analysis, and utility analysis to demonstrate the quality of new hires.

Located near customer site near Fort Meade, directed multiple classified projects for the Associate Directorate for Education and Training (ADET). Managed multiple classified projects and teams of Industrial-Organizational Psychologists and Instructional Systems Designers in the development of innovative, accurate, timely, and high-quality solutions and services. Managed the design, development, administration, and validation of learning tools by conducting interviews, workshops, and focus groups with key stakeholders and subject matter experts to guide the test development process for various courses. I also developed and wrote up a new standardized approach to the test development and validation process, which was subsequently adopted as policy guidance for use by the Federal Government.

PROJECT: Culture Knowledge and Survival Language Skill Pre-Deployment Training Evaluation (for the Defense Language Office)- Phase I assessed the state of current training in each Service using surveys, direct observations of instruction, reviews of knowledge portals (websites), evaluations of training materials (e.g., lesson plans, field guides, and videos), and qualitative data collected and analyzed via interviews with training leaders, instructors, and developers, providing a baseline understanding of pre-deployment training across the Services. - Phase II extended the findings to collect additional Kirkpatrick Level 1 survey data, further interview data, materials, and further site visits. As survey lead, I analyzed the satisfaction survey (K1) across the services, along with learning outcomes (K2) data. Both informed future policy best training practices each of the services offered to sustain and improve continued learning (Technical report and conference presentations submitted)ROLE: Graduate Research Assistant: Led critical research for the Army Research Institute to develop a method to predict presence across media in support of telerobotic operations (Institute for Simulation and Training, 2007-08). PROJECT: Developed, collected and analyzed data to construct validate a new assessment tool, the Tendency toward Presence Inventory (TPI), to measure the human factors hypothesized to predict the psychological state of [tele]presence (immersion) in virtual and augmented environments and was able to publish as first author in peer-reviewed journal 2nd year in program.

PROJECT: Development and Validation of the Cross-Cultural Competence Inventory (3CI) - for the U.S. Army Research Institute (ARI) and the DoD- Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute (DEOMI) sponsored project to develop/validate a new tool to measure cross-cultural competence (3C) for the military- Collected data from over 5,000 active duty members, conducted construct and criterion-related validation, and test-retest analysis. - Cultural Engagement dimension most strongly related to success on military missions involving interaction with foreign nationals - 8 publications and 5 conference presentations and symposia, both civilian and military (including APA 119th Annual Convention in Washington D.C.)PROJECT: Decision Training Toolkit for Counter-Improvised Explosive Device (C-IED) skills: Metrics validation test plan - USMC Program Manager for Training Systems (PM TRASYS) sponsored project to develop a Decision Training Toolkit (DTT) to improve mental agility to combat the intelligent insurgent networks at the small unit level, resulting in three products: 1) Scenario Design Tool (SDT) – enables small unit leaders and trainers to create realistic scenarios that incorporate decision challenges into training of individual and collective tasks. 2) Insurgent Methods Training- Network Enhanced Training (IMT-NET) – a Virtual Battlespace module consisting of tutorials, individual scenarios, and a collective free-play mission environment; and 3) C-IED Assessment Tool – evaluates an individual’s cognitive performance in small unit C-IED operations and consists of a Situational Judgment Test to determine the baseline of current capabilities, assess individual readiness for C-IED missions, and evaluates decision skills acquired through training.

ROLE: Project Manager on $80 million contract for Department of Health & Human Services to streamline instructional systems design processes and develop training programs for Defense Contracts Management Agency. (General Dynamics, Orlando, FL):- Led a diverse team of I/O Psychologists and Instructional Systems Designers to conduct in-depth job and task analyses via focus groups and one-on-one interviews with subject matter experts and incumbents - Conducted training needs analysis to identify training gaps in performance via comprehensive collection of job and task analysis data using job shadowing, interviewing, focus groups, Microsoft Visio, etc.- Collaborated with ISDs to provide viable interventions (e.g., training and performance support) using the ADDIE (i.e., analysis, design, development, implementation, evaluation) model of training development- Performed reliability and validation studies, analyzed job and task analysis, and documented information in technical reports.- Developed relevant and measurable assessment criteria and standards based upon learning outcomes for use during and following implementation of training, to assess impact of training on job-relevant skillsBusiness Impact: Three-week packaged simulation training program delivered to over 70,000 employees, reduced normal training time by 75% and costs by 40%. ROLE: Senior Scientist (I/O Psychologist): Led critical research for the Department of Defense (Cognitive Performance Group, Orlando, FL: 2007-11) PROJECT: Development of a Competency Model for Civil-Military Teaming (CMT) - a comprehensive competency model for CMT, a critical requirement for modern military operations where collaboration among military, governmental, non-governmental, local national leadership and civilian agencies is essential.