Hello! I am a Professor in the Psychology Department at the State University of New York at New Paltz studying the nature and importance of play in adults. I have served as chair of the department on a couple of occasions as well as interim chair of the Digital Media and Journalism Department. I earned my Ph.D. in Industrial and Organizational Psychology from Bowling Green State University in 1998 and my BA in Psychology from the University of Connecticut in 1993.

Current Scholarship

In my research lab, the Positive Play Lab, my team and I study play and playfulness in adults. My research and scholarly interests primarily revolve around the study of adult play as it relates to social interaction, well-being and other aspects of positive psychology. My research team and I have also designed a couple of non-digital games and have studied various aspects of board game experiences.

Past Scholarship

I spent much of my early career studying overqualification, underemployment and marginalization. My work on this topic has appeared in a variety of journals, including the Journal of Organizational Psychology, Applied Psychology: An International Journal and the Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology. In 2011, I co-edited a book with Daniel Feldman (University of Georgia) entitled Underemployment: Psychological, Economic and Social Challenges. I have also published in the journals Social Indicators Research, Human Performance, Organizational Research Methods and Teaching of Psychology. Finally, along with colleagues Ishbel McWha and Mary O’Neill Berry, I co-edited a book on the application of humanitarian work psychology to the UN’s Millennium Development Goals entitled Humanitarian Work Psychology and the Global Development Agenda: Case Studies and Interventions.

Teaching

I regularly teach PSY101 Introduction to Psychology, PSY201 Psychological Statistics, and PSY501 Analysis of Variance. I also have developed a seminar for the Honors Program focusing on play entitled HON378 Humans at Play.

Finally, courses I have taught occasionally over the years include PSY498 Seminar in Psychology, PSY503 Correlation and Multiple Regression and PSY558 Seminar in Contemporary Research (on positive psychology), as well as two selected topics courses I have developed: PSY293 Fundamentals of Game Design and PSY493 Psychological Statistics II.