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Abraham (Abe) P. Schwab received his Ph.D. in philosophy and M.A. in applied ethics from Loyola University Chicago and his B.A. in philosophy (minor in English, concentration in history) from Drake University. His research and teaching focus on applied ethics generally, with emphasis on medical ethics, professional ethics, and business ethics. His interdisciplinary scholarship on clinical decision-making, which centers on the intersection of epistemology and applied ethics with contributions from cognitive psychology, has been published in academic and pop culture books, leading bioethics and philosophy of medicine journals, and by the American Medical Association. 

Areas of Interest: medical ethics, business ethics, professional ethics, cognitive psychology and applied ethics

Michael Bendele received his M.A. and Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University in cognitive psychology with an emphasis in experimental design.  He earned his B.S. in psychology from St. Joseph’s College. 

Areas of Interest: human memory and pedagogy

Somer Davis earned her B.A. in psychology at Purdue University Fort Wayne in 2017 and her M.A. in cognitive and social processes at Ball State University in 2020. 

Somer assists students with degree audit guidance, course registration/course sequencing, graduation planning, goal identification, campus policies/procedures, and PFW resources. 

Michelle Drouin received her Ph.D. from the University of Oxford and her B.A. from Cornell University. Broadly, her research focuses on sexuality, interpersonal relationships, and technology with a particular research focus on areas of forensic psychology, including interpersonal violence and sexual crimes. She has extensive consulting and speaking experience in the areas of science, law, and education.

Areas of Interest: sexuality, intimate partner violence, sexual consent, forensic psychology, sex assault, sex offenders, internet sex stings, relationships, communication, social media, memory, alcohol and memory

Keri Fields helps students with general department questions, connecting with faculty, and accessing important forms and resources. While she doesn’t handle academic advising, she can assist with things like scheduling meetings, finding department information, and pointing students in the right direction. If you’re unsure where to start, Keri is a great first point of contact.

Craig Hill obtained a Ph.D. in social psychology at The University of Texas at Austin in 1984. He was a research scientist at the Kinsey Institute at Indiana University Bloomington before coming to Purdue Fort Wayne in 1991.  He has a number of publications on human sexuality, personality factors in sexual motivation, gender issues, intimate relationships, social and personality factors involved in health and wellness, and affiliation motivation.

Areas of Interest: implicit and explicit sexual motivation, personality factors involved in sexual motivation, reactions to partner desire for specific types of emotional experiences in sexual interactions, social and personality psychology, LGBT+ psychology

Jay Jackson received his Ph.D. in personality and social psychology from Purdue University West Lafayette in 1996 and joined Purdue University Fort Wayne’s Department of Psychology two years later. He teaches elementary psychology, introduction to social psychology, introduction to personality theory, history of psychology, and advanced research in personality and social psychology. He works with several undergraduate research assistants each semester through his Intergroup Relations Lab. He primarily studies intergroup relations, social dilemmas, and the psychology of values, beliefs, and morality. 

Areas of Interest: intergroup relations, social dilemmas, social identity, intergroup contact, person-situation models, pseudoscientific beliefs, cognitive biases, moral judgments of nonhuman animals 

Daren Kaiser received his Ph.D. in experimental psychology from the University of Kentucky in 2000. He teaches courses in elementary psychology, research methods, learning and behavior, and biopsychology. His research interest is in animal cognition.

Areas of Interest: animal learning, animal cognition, biopsychology

Brenda Lundy received her Ph.D. in developmental/experimental psychology from the University of Toledo, where her research focused on infant visual perception. She then spent time in Miami, Florida, as a postdoctoral research fellow at both Florida International University, where she studied the effects of stress on preschool children's memory for a natural disaster, and at the University of Miami Medical School, where she studied the impact of maternal depression on infant cognitive, social, and emotional development. Her current research focuses on parents’ attunement to children’s mental processes in relation to infant attachment and early social understanding. 

Areas of Interest: maternal depression, parental mind-mindedness, attachment relationships, theory of mind, early social understanding

Daniel Miller earned his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Purdue University West Lafayette in 2002 and 2005, respectively, and received his B.S. degree from The Ohio State University in 1998.  Since 2005, he has served first as assistant professor and then associate professor at Purdue University Fort Wayne. His research interests include various aspects of social psychology including collective action, stereotyping and prejudice, and romantic relationships and social media.

Areas of Interest: collective action, stereotyping and prejudice, romantic relationships and social media

Patrick K. Murphy received his Ph.D. in counseling psychology at Purdue University West Lafayette in 2024 and his B.A. in psychology from Purdue University Fort Wayne. He completed his predoctoral internship at the Dayton VA Medical Center. His clinical interests include two adult-focused specializations: post-traumatic stress disorder and health psychology. His current research program explores how the complexities of social class and mobility shape identity, individual and group behaviors, and health outcomes.

Areas of Interest: psychology of social class and mobility, classism, socioeconomic health disparities, culture and health behaviors, identity and belonging, health psychology

Amy Perkins received an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina in experimental psychology, where her research focused on prenatal alcohol exposure. After that, she was a postdoctoral researcher at Binghamton University where she studied brain aging. Her current research program evaluates the long term behavioral and neurochemical effects of prenatal alcohol exposure. 

Areas of Interest: prenatal alcohol exposure, behavioral neuroscience, neurochemistry, brain development

Jody Ross completed her undergraduate education in psychology at Indiana University Bloomington and earned her M.A. and Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Houston. She is the director of the Aggression in Interpersonal Relationships Lab, program coordinator of the behavior analysis and techniques certificate, and a licensed clinical psychologist in the state of Indiana. Her research interests include interpersonal violence, personality disorders, coercive control, and sexual aggression.

Areas of Interest: interpersonal violence, personality disorders, coercive control, sexual aggression

Sara Simpson earned her B.A. in psychology at Purdue University Fort Wayne in 1990 and her M.S. in recreation with an emphasis in therapeutic recreation at Indiana University Bloomington in 1993.

Sara enjoys enhancing connections between our psychology students, alumni, faculty, and staff and celebrating their accomplishments through department communications and social media. She also serves as the supervisor of PSYtv, a team of students capturing PFW psychology in photos and videos, and as a co-advisor of the PFW chapter of Psi Chi, the international honor society of psychology.

Lesa Rae Vartanian received her M.A. and Ph.D. in developmental psychology with a graduate concentration in gerontology from Northern Illinois University in 1993 and 1997, and her B.A. in communication from Michigan State University in 1990. She serves as the program coordinator of the death education certificate and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender studies certificate. As a life-span developmental psychologist, she teaches courses on child, adolescent, adult development/aging, and death and dying, as well as elementary psychology and critical foundations for psychology majors.

Areas of Interest: social, social-cognitive, and identity development during adolescence, professional development for youth workers, parent-adolescent/emerging adult relationships, death education, grief, and bereavement

Raymond Voss earned his Ph.D. in experimental psychology from the University of Toledo in 2017. Broadly, his research focuses on human decision-making and the application of cognitive psychology to solve practical problems and understand real world human behavior. He often teaches elementary psychology, introduction to statistics in psychology, cognitive psychology, and advanced research in judgment and decision-making   

Areas of Interest: judgment and decision-making, applied cognition, applied decision science, emotion, affect, consumer behavior, health decision-making, forensic psychology