Meet the Team

Dr. Sy

Dr. Sy completed his Ph.D. at the University of Michigan. He was formerly an advisor with a top-tier global management consultancy. He has also served in the U.S. Army Special Forces (Green Beret) and was the Distinguished Honor (Top) Graduate of the U.S. Army Leadership Program, U.S. Army Special Forces Program, and U.S. Army Egyptian Arabic Language Program. He enjoys Brazilian Jujitsu and creating abstract metal sculptures.

He is also a professor at UCR and has won numerous research and teaching awards. His research areas include leadership, followership, and teams, focusing on schemas (implicit theories), emotions, diversity, and unconscious processes and biases.

Dr. Sy provides consulting, training, and coaching services. He has worked with many, including General Motors, Google, Zappos, Los Angeles County, and many more. His research is funded by three awards from the U.S. Army Research Institute and the National Research Foundation of Korea and has been published in many outlets, including the Journal of Applied Psychology, Organizational Behavior, and Human Decision Processes and many others.

PhD Students

Merab Gomez

Merab Gomez is a fourth-year doctoral candidate in the Leadership and Group Dynamics Lab at the University of California, Riverside. Originally from San Antonio, Texas, she earned a BA in Psychology from the University of Texas at San Antonio before completing a Master’s in Psychological Research at Texas State University. Her research examines how humans interact with technology and the enduring human elements that shape digital landscapes, covering topics such as social media influencer leadership, remote work satisfaction, and the user experience (UX) of a mobile gaming application. For her dissertation, she plans to study leader-follower identities within virtual teams. She also has experience as a consultant and teaching assistant and intends to pursue a career in consulting and research. In her free time, she enjoys drawing, working out, traveling, and tending to her plants.

Paul McAvoy

Paul is a second-year Ph.D. student in the Leadership and Group Dynamics Lab. Originally from Richmond, Kentucky, he earned his BA in Psychological Science and English with an emphasis in Creative Writing from Colgate University. Before coming to UCR, Paul played professional hockey across North America and later returned to Colgate as an assistant coach. His leadership experiences as both a player and coach have continued to shape his research interests. Paul’s current research focuses on leadership and teams, with an emphasis on emotions and emotional expressions, implicit theories, membership change, and mindset training and development, particularly in sports contexts and organizations. His recent projects have examined the impact of newcomer entry on psychological safety in organizations, as well as leader emotional expressions in professional sports using naturalistic observation methods. Outside of the lab, Paul enjoys playing tennis and running with his partner, as well as creative writing, bourbon tasting, and miniature dachshunds!

Laura Ashlock

Laura is a 4th year PhD candidate in the Leadership and Group Dynamics lab. Prior to UCR, she earned her BA in Psychology from Pepperdine University and a Masters in Marriage and Family Therapy from the University of Southern California. Drawing from her clinical background, experience as an employment consultant for Best Buddies International, and volunteer role advising collegiate leaders through Gamma Phi Beta Sorority, Laura's academic interests center on leader identity development and well-being at work. Laura's recent projects in the lab have focused on scale development, workplace assessment, and the impacts of mindset training on leader and follower self-perception. When not in the lab, you will most likely find Laura (and our unofficial RA, Penelope) at various coffee shops throughout southern California!

Animal RA

Cinnamon Sy

Animal RA

Penelope Ashlock

Animal RA

Squirt Gomez

Team Merab

Lead RA Camryn Pi ('25)

Camryn is a fourth-year psychology major. After undergrad she plans to be a human resources partner at Amazon DSD1 in San Diego. In her free time she likes to paint, rave, binge watch tv shows, and watch movies with her family. Her favorite lab activity is cleaning data and doing collaborative research with her team. She also loves all team meetings where she can get to know all RAs.

Melanie Huang ('27)

Melanie is a psychology major and plans to go to grad school after she finishes undergrad. During her free time she likes to go thrifting, to the beach, and hang out with her friends. Her favorite lab activity is to analyze data.

Jennifer Amador

Megan Silva

Suhanee Malhotra

Siya Bhaktra

Tiffany Chen ('27)

Tiffany is a psychology major with a minor in business analytics. She would like to be in the field of I/O psychology specifically as a consultant and or UI/UX researcher. She is currently looking into PhD programs. In her free time she enjoys hiking and visiting national parks. She also sometimes plays D&D, loves creative writing and she sings! Tiffany has over 5 years of choral experience. In the lab she loves literature review and discussing her findings with her team. She enjoys working with data and learning different stats softwares, she is one of the RAs doing a research poster that is centered around goal orientation and self-efficacy based on the mindtapp data.

Team Paul

Emily Huang ('27)

Emily is a psychology major with a marketing minor. She loves traveling, but Taiwan holds a special place in her heart because she goes there every summer for her family. She also loves to read and watch movies. In the lab, her favorite activities are discussions with her team, brainstorming new ideas, and developing research questions.

Michelle Dang ('25)

Michelle is a psychology major. She loves thrifting, cooking/baking, gardening, and watching YouTube video essays. After graduation, she plans to take a gap year to gain more experience and insight into her field. Her favorite lab activity is discussions because they allow her to hear everyone's input and work as a team to progress a project.

Bianca Verdin (‘25)

Bianca is a graduate student that majors in educational psychology. After graduation,, she hopes to seek job opportunities and pursue a PhD. She has an adorable tuxedo cat named Autumn and likes study cafes, road trips, and yoga. Her favorite lab activity is the brainstorming process during team meetings.

Ying Cheung Tang (Angel) (‘26)

Angel is double majoring in psychology and French. She will be applying to grad schools after graduation, and some of her favorite activities are traveling, scuba diving, skiing, and being outdoors. Angel’s favorite lab activity is brainstorming research ideas and discussing research topics.

Sean McLeod (‘25)

Sean is a psychology major with a minor in Media and Cultural studies. He is also a student-athlete at UCR and is now a coach. After graduation, Sean wants to pursue a sports psychology graduate program, and his favorite lab activity is analyzing data.

Julianna Nepomuceno ('27)

Julianna is a psychology major. Currently she is exploring grad programs, but plans on getting more job experience in the field of psychology after graduation. Julianna is a soccer player and enjoys baking and exploring coffee shops. Her hobby is arranging her own floral bouquets and she wants to improve on her work. Her favorite lab activity is working as a team to create operational definitions for Paul's current mic'd up project.

Rachel Varghese ('26)

Rachel is a psychology major. After undergrad she wants to go straight into a PhD program in psychology. She wants to deepen her research skills and contribute to her field in specific areas such as I/O and interpersonal relationships. Rachel has been a dancer for a very long time, starting ballet at the age of 7. She also does other styles of dance but ballet is her main style. She loves to bake, travel, and go to the gym and when she has time she writes creative cards and is currently looking into cooking more. Since she is a newer RA she is still learning about lab activities but does want to make a poster and is looking forward to cleaning data, learning R, making surveys, discussion articles and analyzing data.

Xiao Lin Liu (Lin)

Dawson Proof

Team Laura

Suseela Bikkina ('25)

Suseela is a psychology major with a minor in Organizational Behavior and Marketing. After graduation, she hopes to find an internship or job in I/O psychology before going to grad school for Applied Psych. During her free time, she loves Kayaking, hiking, and visiting new countries. Her favorite lab activity is running sessions for Jennifer's honors project and observing participants.

Shireen Mehta ('27)

Shireen is majoring in business administration concentrating in information systems with a minor in psychology. After graduation, she hopes to get a full-time job for a couple of years and then apply to get her MBA. In her free time, she likes to attend concerts, read, and working out. Shireen's favorite lab activity is analyzing data and cleaning data, but she enjoys all the lab activities.

Megan Silva