People

Jonathan E. Larson
Executive Director

An associate professor and chair of psychology at Illinois Tech, as well as the Executive Director of the Center for Research and Service, Jonathon Larson is a core faculty member in the Department of Psychology’s Division of Counseling and Rehabilitation Science. He is the principal investigator for “Testing the Effectiveness of Neurofield: A Pulsed Electromagnetic Field System for Electroencephalogram Regulation” funded by Neurofield, Inc. He is a co-investigator for the “Motivational Interviewing for Social Security Exiters” project funded by the Social Security Administration. Larson has authored 61 peer-reviewed publications, seven book chapters, and 22 published training chapters.

Sheng Zhang (M.S. PSYC ’18)
Project Lead

Sheng Zhang is responsible for the design, administration, and analysis of the Center’s employee engagement and 360 leadership surveys. His professional interests include applying analytic tools to enrich the selection and performance appraisal systems in organizations. Sheng has worked as an associate consultant, talent & culture analyst, and research assistant for companies with diverse backgrounds and established a proven competency in working in a fast-paced environment. His research interests include Psychometrics, Occupational Health Psychology, and Diversity & Inclusion practices. His project on examining the contributions of STEM-specific characteristics on burnout among STEM women faculty has received recognition by the Association for Psychological Science conference 2020. Sheng has received his Bachelor of Science in Mental Health Studies at the University of Toronto at Scarborough. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Industrial/Organizational Psychology, working on his dissertation regarding Computerized Adaptive Testing.

Erin Young
Associate Consultant

Erin Young has over 3 years of experience analyzing organizational surveys, updating norm databases, and creating executive presentations. Erin attended DePaul University where she received a B.A. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology and Roosevelt University where she received an M.A. in the same field. Erin worked at Qualtrics, a major provider of online surveys, for nearly 2 years as a Data Scientist on the Employee Experience Benchmarks team, where she contributed to the development of the first ever Qualtrics norm database and serviced client requests for benchmarks. Erin is currently pursuing her PhD in Psychology with a specialization in Industrial/Organizational Psychology at Illinois Tech.

Ho-Chun Tsai
Associate Consultant

Ho-Chun Tsai has two years of experience in analyzing organizational surveys, updating norm databases, and creating executive reports. Prior to joining the center, he had worked as a research assistant for several projects, including meta-analysis on cultural tightness-looseness and a conceptual review of advice from artificial intelligence, in the research labs at George Mason University, where he received an M.A. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology. His research interests include psychometrics, training, job performance, and gamification. His research results were presented at multiple professional conference sessions. Tsai is currently a Ph.D. student in psychology with a specialization in industrial/organizational psychology at Illinois Tech.