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Welcome to New Faculty and Staff

The Psychology Department is very pleased to welcome our new faculty and staff members.

Jonathan Beier
Jonathan Beier received his Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from Harvard University and completed his postdoctoral work in the Department of Developmental and Comparative Psychology at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. His research investigates the origins of social cognition, through studies with infants, toddlers, and young children. In particular, his work focuses on early reasoning about intentional agency, social interactions, communication, and social relationships. He will begin his appointment in the department in January 2012, teaching a graduate seminar on early social cognition that semester. He will lead both undergraduate and graduate courses on related topics in subsequent years and looks forward to mentoring students in his research lab.

Susanne Jaeggi
Susanne Jaeggi received her Ph.D.s in Psychology and Neuroscience from the University of Bern, Switzerland, and she was a post-doc in Cognition and Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Michigan. Her interest
lies in the investigation of working memory and executive processes. She examines whether and how working memory can be trained, and whether improvements in working memory have generalizing effects to other cognitive domains. She currently teaches 'Introduction to Cognitive Neuroscience' for undergraduates, as well as a graduate course on higher cognitive functions, and she welcomes undergraduate and graduate students to join her lab to investigate the underlying cognitive and neural mechanisms of cognitive training.

Kevin McGann
Kevin McGann received a B.A. in psychology from Loyola University Maryland, where he conducted independent research in the area of social cognition. In 2010, he received his Ph.D. in counseling psychology from the University of Maryland, College Park. Before returning to work in the Department of Psychology at Maryland, he completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where he provided psychological assessment for students with ADHD, and received advanced training in social-emotional and vocational counseling. As an advisor and educator, he is particularly interested in improving students’ academic progress, professional development experiences, graduate school prospects, and job placements. He has a special interest in helping students to develop strategies for addressing and overcoming barriers to their personal and academic development.

Scott Roberts
Scott Roberts completed his B.A. in psychology at Denison University in 2000 with an honors thesis study of symbolic language acquisition at the Ohio State Chimpanzee Center. He spent three years working as a dolphin trainer and research associate at the Kewalo Basin Marine Mammal Lab in Honolulu before coming to the University of Maryland for graduate study in social psychology. He completed his doctorate in 2008 with research on deception detection and worked as a Research Psychologist for the Federal Government before returning to Maryland in 2011 as the Department's Director of Undergraduate Studies. In addition to his administrative role, Scott teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in psychology, social psychology, persuasion, pedagogy and the psychology of evil. His research in the scholarship of teaching and learning focuses on the psychology of student engagement, active learning and program evaluation.

Dylan Selterman
Dr. Selterman received his B.A. in Psychology from Johns Hopkins University, and his Ph.D. in Social/Health Psychology from Stony Brook University. Dr. Selterman's research background is in attachment theory and close relationships, and he focuses on the role of secure vs. insecure personality in romantic relationships. He is interested in studying how people use their partners as a secure base to explore their world, grow, expand, achieve, learn, and thrive. His recent research is on dreams of people in relationships -- specifically, how people dream about their romantic partners (and alternatives), and how dreams influence people's behavior. In addition to studying dreams, Dr. Selterman studies jealousy, morality, and autobiographical memory.

Steve Young
Steve Young completed his B.A. in psychology from Lebanon Valley College in 1991. He earned his Master of Education in Student Affairs in Higher Education from Kutztown University in 1996. He has over 15 years experience in higher education having served in the functional areas of residence life, admissions, and most recently as an Academic Advisor with DeSales University. Steve specializes in higher education humor and has presented numerous workshops on this topic at state, regional, and national conferences.