Class of 2023
Carla Cavanagh
Carla graduated in 2021 from the University of Illinois at Chicago with her BA in Applied Psychology with a minor in Business Administration. During her undergraduate career, she became a research assistant, mainly working on a study related to the effect that Instagram can have on the emotional experiences of its users. She also had the opportunity to work as a Data and Evaluation Intern at the non-profit organization, Leading Educators. While interning, she learned a lot about the importance of data and how it can be used to improve the satisfaction and well-being of employees within an organization as well as the clients served by that organization. These experiences in combination with her passion to improve the lives of others in a place where they spend most of their time, the workplace, has indirectly led her to the I/O Psychology master's program at SF state. She has participated in projects related to the presence of narcissism in the workplace in Dr. Eschleman's Health and Organizational Psychology lab as well as Dr. Wright's Employee Selection and Retention lab. She is also currently working as a Talent Acquisition intern assisting with recruitments, creating, and compiling interview questions, and assisting with a team restructuring project. In her free time, Carla enjoys hiking, thrifting, and trying out different restaurants throughout the Bay Area.
Second Year Internship: San Francisco Public Utilities Commission
Daniel Diaz
Daniel Diaz graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2020 with a B.A. in Sociology and a minor in Applied Psychology. Throughout his undergraduate career, Daniel held various leadership roles gaining experience in project management, counseling, programming, coaching/mentoring, and complex problem-solving. He served as a mentor for first-generation, low-income students of color for two campus organizations dedicated to the recruitment and retention of underrepresented students. He was also the resident assistant for the First-Generation Scholars floor, during which he was recognized and awarded for outstanding contribution to the campus community. In the final year of his undergraduate education, Daniel studied abroad in Ghana, West Africa, and held an internship position at the Spread-Out Initiative, a non-governmental organization that served as an out-of-school and after-school program for children in the community of Nima. For his internship project, he created the Social Justice and Mental Health Awareness Program, which was a series of 10 educational workshops revolving around social justice, mental health, and wellness. Daniel is now a student at San Francisco State University studying under the Graduate Equity Fellowship program and pursuing his Master’s in Industrial/Organizational Psychology. He is a research assistant for the WorkTech Lab under Dr. Diana R. Sanchez, where he has led two projects - a mentorship program helping disadvantaged students attain graduate education, and another project exploring design choices and team dynamics in virtual reality meetings. In his final year, Daniel is the president of SFSU’s Industrial/Organizational Psychology Student Association, and is completing his thesis on Team Personality Composition and Team Effectiveness. Daniel is expecting to graduate in 2023, and hopes to establish a career in data analytics or consulting.
Second Year Internship: TBD
Delsen Edwards
Delsen Edwards is currently a second year Master's Student in the Industrial-Organizational Psychology program at San Francisco State University. He was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and moved to San Diego, California with his Mother when he was nine years old. He attended San Diego State University as a undergraduate. There he obtained a bachelors degree in Psychology with a emphasis in Industrial-Organizational Psychology and a minor in Counseling and Social Change. His interest in I-O Psychology began after taking a selection course at San Diego State. After being accepted to San Francisco State University, He spent his first year as a full time student. The second semester of his first year, he joined Dr. Wright's Employee Selection and Retention Lab. During the summer, he obtained a job at Axos Bank in San Diego as a Human Resources System Administrator. He hopes to continue to advocate for the science-practitioner model in the business world.
Second Year Internship: TBD
Hisel Esquivel
Hisel Esquivel graduated from the California State University of Long Beach and received her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology. As an undergraduate student, Hisel was granted the opportunity to become a member of the National society of collegiate scholars for her educational efforts. During this time, Hisel was also part of Dr. Dulay’s research lab, that focused on researching the various components of effective leadership skills in the workplace. While attending college, she began to work at a small employment agency as an HR assistant. Her education along with her occupational experiences inspired her to pursue a degree in Industrial & Organizational psychology. Hisel is now a second year Master’s student at SFSU and is part of Dr. Sanchez’s research lab where she is researching how teams work together, communicate, and manage their time in a virtual reality setting. Hisel now works as an HR manager; with her occupational background and educational knowledge, she hopes to develop and practice new approaches that can help strengthen employee recruitment processes and retention rates in the workplace.
Second Year Internship: Promax Personnel
Philip Farillas
Philip Farillas completed his B.A. in Psychology at San Francisco State University, where he discovered the Industrial/Organization Psychology program. Before graduating undergrad, he was determined to find a role in Human Resources to get a closer look into the field that would prepare for him for his future. Luckily, he was hired as a HR Assistant at Dignity Health, one of the largest non-profit organizations in the United States. Through his journey, he was interested in learning more about the functions in human resources that revolve data. Early in his career, he had the opportunity to learn the HR Analyst and HR Generalist position, where he continues to own the tasks for Saint Francis Memorial Hospital and Saint Mary's Medical Center, with around 2000 employees. Don't let the title fool you, as he survived yearly layoffs and a company merger where he was then promoted to a HR Coordinator under Dignity Health and CommonSpirit Health. As eager to grow, he now creates metrics for turnover, vacancy rates, positions filled, and compliance completions to senior leadership. Now, Philip is a grad student in Industrial and Organization Psychology at San Francisco State University. With his grown interest in technology and gaming, he joined the Workplace Technology Lab as a Research Assistant. He us currently working on a project involving Virtual Reality, in collaboration with UC Santa Cruz and the School of Design department at SFSU. During his fulltime employment at Dignity Health, he is being trained to become a consultant under his manager. With his interest with data analytics, he also strives to learn more about identifying trends in the workplace like turn-over, employee engagement, and training effectiveness.
Second Year Internship: Dignity Health, Sant Francis Memorial Hospital
Giovanni Ferrante
Giovanni Ferrante is a student in the Master of Science program in Industrial/Organizational Psychology at San Francisco State University cohort of 2023. Giovanni received his MBA with an HR Concentration at California State University East Bay, where he studied while working as a Human Resources professional for multiple years. Prior to that, he completed his Bachelor's degree in Industrial/Organizational Psychology, where his love for the field was first discovered. During his time as an undergraduate. Giovanni studied abroad multiple times, including a I/O focused program in Germany where he was able to work on teams with individuals from all over the globe. This was a transformational experience in truly appreciating the impact what business consulting work could accomplish, especially when partnering with students around the world. Since then his passion for People Analytics and HR Consulting has grown, especially during as summer internship with a Southern CA based company, Alteryx, in the area of People Analytics. Giovanni hopes to continue working as an analyst for them after graduation. However, even after graduation, Giovanni plans to always maintain his approach of a life-long learner, a mentality that has always served him well.
Second Year Internship: SF State Institutional Research
Abner Guerrero
Abner graduated from CSULA in 2020 with a Bachelors degree in Psychology. During his undergraduate career, Abner became heavily focused in Social Psychology and the psychological processes of human interaction. He worked alongside Dr. Riggio, and worked in research focusing on the well-being and organizational/academic support of student-workers which propelled his interest in I/O Psychology. As a student in the I/O program at SFSU, he joined Dr. Eschleman's HOP lab and Dr. Wright's Employee Selection Lab, working on several projects such as identifying Narcissism through interview questions and studying workplace BS. As part of completing his Masters thesis, he is researching favoritism, personal biases, and the development of in-groups and out-groups in the workplace.
Second Year Internship: Munchkin
Ashlynn Harrison
After graduating from UCLA, Ashlynn has spent most of her career in the field of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) working as a therapist and Program Supervisor for children diagnosed with Autism and their families. Ashlynn’s passion for helping others sparked her interest in the field of Organizational Psychology and she pivoted away from clinical work by accepting the role of an Organizational Health and Recruiting specialist at ClearPath Business Advisors, a business advisory firm. Most recently, Ashlynn has been using the skills gained in this program to promote organizational development. Currently, she helps businesses achieve strategic goals by prioritizing their employees' experience, optimizing talent, leveraging survey data, and utilizing personality assessments.
Second Year Internship: ClearPath Business Advisors
Cherry Huang
Cherry graduated UCLA in 2021 with a bachelor's degree in Cognitive Science with a Specialization in Computing and a minor in Digital Humanities. During her time in undergrad, she worked in various research labs investigating stress inoculation and emotional regulation in students and was among the finding members of SHRM, UCLA’s first human resource club. Cherry worked as a HR Coordinator at One Method Center, a mental health treatment center, before starting her Master’s in Industrial Organizational Psychology at SFSU. At SFSU, Cherry worked as a research assistant in Dr. Eschleman’s Health & Organizational Psychology Lab where she assisted projects regarding narcissism in the workplace. She took inspiration from Dr. Eschleman’s lab to pursue her master’s thesis on context-specific personality, which focus on the differences between work narcissism and general narcissism. In her free time, Cherry enjoys playing tennis, journaling, gymming, and attending live music shows.
Second Year Internship: CALSTART
Eric Le
Eric was born and raised in the Bay Area and received his B.A. in Psychology from UC Irvine in 2016. He would go on to spend the next 6 years working in Orange County before moving back up to the Bay in pursuit of his master’s degree. He has since stepped into a strategic planner role at his organization to work with the executive leadership in better understanding how to improve processes and develop policies that seek to bridge the gap between current states and desired states. Outside of school and work, he has also taken on various roles that would allow him to apply the training he has received in the program. Eric had the opportunity to work with Dropbox, where he gained insight into developing diagnostic tools and utilizing statistical software for factor analysis. Shortly after, Eric had the opportunity to work for a management consulting firm, Talent Integral Systems, on a project with the San Francisco Department of Public works, where he gained valuable experience into administering and analyzing a department-wide engagement survey. Most recently, Eric completed a 10-week summer internship with Form Energy, where he was responsible for constructing and launching a company-wide engagement survey to 300+ employees, conducting a gap audit of the organization’s learning and development opportunities, assisting with the action planning following the close of a previous survey, writing new company policies that aligned with the company’s mission, and coming up with ways to improve the employee experience. At SF State, he works as a research assistant in Dr. Wright’s lab, where they have studied workplace BS, political ideology & controversial views, and job embeddedness. Eric’s master thesis will be examining applicant reactions to organizational messaging containing DE&I language. He is passionate about DE&I and strives to create more space and equitable treatment of people from marginalized communities. His career aspirations are to work in organizational consulting, and he will be starting a consulting internship in the fall. In his spare time, he enjoys weightlifting, cooking, watching anime, and collecting houseplants.
Second Year Internship: Integral Talent Systems
Christina Lee
Christina Lee graduated from SDSU with a B.A. in I/O Psychology. Throughout her undergraduate journey, Christina worked in a department formerly known as the Department of Academic Engagement and Student Achievement (DAESA). There, she learned about the various types of employees a workplace can have and how that can affect the people they provide support to as well as the other employees around them. After graduating from SDSU, she worked in a non-profit organization where employees truly wanted to help the guests they served despite being underpaid and overworked. This fueled her desire to want to make the workplace a better environment to support employees' growth as well as to bring awareness to management in how they can empower their own employees. Eventually, she transitioned to the hospitality field and learned how larger corporations, with multiple branches, can actually form obstacles to initiatives that cultivate employee growth and well-being. The multitude of experiences led to an understanding of how several factors, such as leadership, climate, and training, can influence the overall happiness and performance of an organization. Christina is currently a research assistant in Dr. Eschleman’s HOP Lab, assisting with projects related to narcissism in the workplace. By incorporating her work experiences and all she has learned from SFSU, Christina's career goals entail being able to be in a position where she can bridge the gap between the researcher and practitioners to ensure a better work environment for all that work. While Christina is not working, she may be eating out with friends, reading, or playing video games.
Second Year Internship: InterContinental Mark Hopkins
Jenny Nguyen
Jenny was born and raised in Orange County and received her B.A. in Psychology and Social Behavior in 2019 at the University of California, Irvine. Jenny spent most of her undergraduate years juggling both work and school full-time but wouldn't have had it any other way as this was how she would soon begin to grow an interest in wanting to make the workplace a better place and pursue a career in I/O Psychology. Jenny had the opportunity to explore various job industries ranging from the restaurant & healthcare industry, and startups. Within these organizations, she would then be able to develop and execute training programs for incoming personnel, work closely with management teams on several projects, and assist with exploring best practices and improving the workplace for employees within these organizations. Although these were all great experiences and opportunities, Jenny wanted to attain more knowledge about the world of I/O Psychology through the lens of an expert. SFSU's I/O program and the program's faculty has greatly assisted Jenny with providing a learning environment where she continues to develop and strengthen her Scientist-Practitioner role. Her current interests in I/O are employee retention and well-being, learning and development, training, occupational stress, and employee motivation. Once she completes this program and obtains her Master's, Jenny aspires to be a project consultant who can collaborate with various organizations across the world and get the opportunity to continue practicing and strengthening her skills and abilities as an I/O Psychologist. During her spare time, Jenny is always on the hunt for new food spots in her area, watching Korean dramas and anime, trying her best to attend music festivals and concerts, and spending time with her loved ones.
Second Year Internship: Federal Home Loan Bank San Francisco
Nancy Nguyen
Nancy completed her B.S. in Psychology and minor in Business at UC San Diego. Throughout her undergraduate professional career, Nancy worked on campus where she started noticing common workplace problems that student employees faced. This led her to utilize the psychological concepts she learned from her classes, such as social psychology, human cognition and development, to improve working conditions, better understand her colleagues, and produce happy, healthy, and productive employees. Nancy’s experiences were greatly influential, inspiring her to pursue a career in Industrial-Organizational Psychology. Her current interests in the field centre on using people analytics to enhance selection processes, employee well-being initiatives, job attitudes, and overall improve employee experiences while maintaining productivity and performance. At SFSU, Nancy worked as a research assistant in Dr. Kevin Eschleman’s Health & Organizational Psychology Lab and Dr. Chris Wright’s Selection & Retention Lab. She has worked on reject projects studying narcissism in employment interviews and workplace BS. Nancy’s thesis involves creating employment interview questions for selection purposes to measure applicants’ tolerance for ambiguity and validating them to existing scales. In her free time, Nancy enjoys binging Netflix shows, hiking with her dog, going out to eat, and traveling.
Second Year Internship: Skechers
Evelyn Palafox
Evelyn earned her bachelor's degree in Industrial/Organizational Psychology at San Diego State University. While at SDSU, Evelyn's interest in research led her to participate in three different research labs. She was a part of the South Bay Latino Research Center, the Spatiotemporal Brain Imaging Lab, and the Psychology of Organizational Well-Being and Effectiveness Research lab. These different research efforts eventually helped her nail her interest in the I-O space. After graduating, Evelyn was chosen as an Organizational Science Summer Institute participant at the University of North Caroline Charlotte, where she was mentored by I-O faculty Dr. Jill Yavorsky and doctoral candidate students. Her experience culminated in being involved in teams and meetings research throughout the summer. At the same time, she worked in human resources within the hospitality space. As a graduate student at SFSU, she has been a research assistant in Dr. Eschleman's Health & Organizational Psychology Lab and Dr. Wright's Employee Selection and Retention Lab where she worked on projects studying narcism in the workplace. Evelyn hopes to work In the organizational development space where she can apply the necessary skills to help organization's meet their goals while meeting employee needs. In her free time, Evelyn enjoys hiking, traveling, attending festivals/concerts, and spending time with her dog Arlo.
Second Year Internship: San Francisco Public Utilities Commission
Amanda Rueda
Amanda Rueda received her B.S. in Business Marketing at California State Long Beach in 2012. After completing her undergraduate degree, Amanda spent her early career at Coca-Cola where she ultimately developed her talents in (and passions for) training, leadership development, and organizational change management as a Capabilities Manager. Amanda's professional growth in these areas continued as she transitioned into the world of Sales Enablement across both small business and hyper-growth start-up environments. In her roles, Amanda was often responsible for shepherding teams through business acquisitions, large-scale system integrations, and changing work environments. As a result, she became known for her employee-first thinking and inclusive approach to problem-solving. These professional experiences and an innate curiosity eventually led Amanda to pursue a M.S. in Industrial-Organizational Psychology at San Francisco State University. Since joining SFSU, Amanda has worked under the direction of Dr. Diana R. Sanchez as a Research Assistant in the Workplace Technology Lab where she has contributed to multiple academic papers for publication. Amanda is currently a People Analytics Intern at Whole Foods Market while working on her thesis which aims to explore the relationship between manager self-compassion and responses to employee feedback.
Second Year Internship: Whole Foods Market