Faculty Advisors
Shawn Bergman, Ph.D
Faculty Co-Director & Founder | bergmans@appstate.edu | Website
Shawn received his Ph.D. from The University of Tennessee-Knoxville in I-O Psychology. His teaching focuses on the application of quantitative methods and analytics to solve practical problems. Shawn's students are heavily involved in his research and he has over 60 publications and conference presentations with student co-authors. He is a member of Appalachian State's Faculty Hall of Fame, received the Department of Psychology's Psi Chi Excellence in Teaching Award, and has been awarded the Board of Governors' Excellence in Teaching College Award.
Yalcin Acikgoz, Ph.D
Faculty Co-Director | acikgozy@appstate.edu | Website
Yalcin received his Ph.D from Middle East Technical University in I-O Psychology. His teaching interests include both introductory and advanced courses in the areas of Strategic HRM, Job Analysis, Performance Appraisal, Staffing, Research Methods, and Statistics. His research interests focus on employee recruitment and job search, and applications of social media in human resources. He is currently working on developing a comprehensive model of employee recruitment and job search which combines employer and employee behaviors in the pursuit of filling a position.
Timothy Ludwig, Ph.D
Project Consultant - Safety | ludwigtd@appstate.edu
Tim earned his Ph.D. at Virginia Tech researching the benefits of employee-driven behavioral safety programs. Dr. Ludwig is the author of dozens of scholarly articles that empirically document the successes of methods to improve safety and quality in industry through behavior-based solutions. Dr. Ludwig has over 30 years experience in research and practice in behavioral safety where he integrates empirical findings into his safety consulting.
Jim Westerman, Ph.D
Project Consultant - Sustainability | westermanjw@appstate.edu
Jim's research and consulting focus on sustainability, ethics, organizational behavior, and human resource management. He has over 40 peer-reviewed articles, authored the books Organizational Communication (Oxford University Press, 2019) and Person-Organization Fit: Effects on Employee Attitudes and Behavior. Jim also currently serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management Review.
Jack Carson, Ph.D
Project Consultant - Sustainability | Carsonje1@appstate.edu | Website
Jack joined Appalachian State in 2020 after earning his PhD in Management at Auburn University. His current research interests include employee attributions, workplace interpersonal (mis)treatment, and organizational orientation messaging. Jack's research work has been published in a variety of academic journals, and he serves on the editorial boards of Journal of Business Research and Group & Organization Management. In the classroom, he enjoys helping students to understand the "hows" and "whys" of organizational work life.
Executive Committee
Luke Vavricka
Assistant Director | Vavrickale@appstate.edu
Luke is a second-year graduate candidate in both the IOHRM & MBA programs. He is the Assistant Director of HR Science. Luke is in charge of the HRS administrative & communicative tasks, and keeps the team streamlined & organized. He loves to work with the full team and can’t wait to see what the members of HRS can do this year.
Mark Allen
Training & Engagement Coordinator | Allenmt@appstate.edu
Mark is an undergraduate student majoring in Psychology with a concentration in social sciences and a minor in statistics. He is a senior and will be graduating in May of 2023. As Training & Development Coordinator, Mark is responsible for preparing team members for conferences, developing and implementing training for team members, as well as creating and managing team-building activities.
Mackenzie Law
Orientation & Staffing Coordinator | Lawmg@appstate.edu
Mackenzie is a Senior at Appalachian State University and will be graduating Spring of 2023. As the Recruitment and Onboarding Coordinator she is responsible for collecting a pool of new students suited for the HR Science Team and Orienting the new members to their individual teams. She has been a member of the HR Science Sustainability Team since Fall semester of 2020, and is excited to continue her work with HR Science this year.
Kaitlyn Miller
Logistics Coordinator | millerkm15@appstate.edu
Kaitlyn is a senior at Appalachian State University and will be graduating in Fall of 2023. She is majoring in Psychology and double minoring in Marketing and Sociology. As the Logistics Coordinator, she is responsible for sending out updates, scheduling and documenting meetings, and administrative tasks to help the team be prepared and organized. She has been a part of the HR Science Sustainability team since Fall semester of 2022.
Team Leads
Megan Hineline
Project Lead - EBP | hinelinemt@appstate.edu
Megan is a second-year graduate student in the IOHRM programs. Megan is a co-lead, alongside Taylor Bott, for the EBP HR Science team. She attended UNC Chapel Hill in her undergrad studying psychology and computer science. She has been involved heavily in research for the past 5 years and plans to continue that interest as part of the EBP leadership team.
Taylor Bott
Project Lead - EBP | botttj@appstate.edu
Taylor is a second-year graduate student in the IOHRM and MBA programs. Taylor is a co-lead, alongside Megan Hineline, for the EBP HR Science team. She is excited to work with the team to provide psychology majors with information and resources to better set themselves up for success.
Nick Granowsky
Project Lead - Safety | granowskynf@appstate.edu
Nick is a second-year graduate student in the IOHRM and MBA programs. He is starting his first semester as team lead of the safety team, but is not new to HR Science. Nick also attended Appalachian State University for undergrad and is coming up on his third year as a member of the Safety Team. He is excited to continue working with the safety team in his new role and can't wait to get the new members up to speed and working on safety analytics.
Amanda Lillie
Project Lead - Sustainability | lillieag@appstate.edu
Amanda is a second-year graduate student in the IOHRM program. As the team lead for the Sustainability HR Science team, she looks forward to supporting and guiding her members as they learn more about research. She is also excited to contribute to important research dealing with orientation signals companies send to new hires about sustainability values and the impact those have on these new hires.
Research Associates
Jacob Leslie
Abby Branco
Morgan McElhaney
Alex Mecklenburg
Rylie Sant
Morgan Greene
Tanner Landolt
Mariana Solanilla
Aidan Powell
Ellise Vangilder
Sunny Barboj
Logan Briggs
Samantha Plourde
Lauder Fuhrmann
Robert Gruber
Brenna Mcnamara
Connor Austin