2026 Roster of Participants
Participants whose names are in blue will be attending their first in-person Duck Conference.
Participants should feel free to contact the conference organizer if they wish to substitute another picture or to add or revise their descriptions of professional or personal interests.
Duck 2026 Who's Who
Abby Scholer
(she/her)
Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, University of Virginia
Professional Interests: self-regulation,
motivation, self-control, goal pursuit, social regulation
Personal Interests: running, travel, reading novels, dancing (mostly in my kitchen), skiing (not well but with abandon), hanging with all the people I love
Allen McConnell
(he/him)
Miami University
Professional Interests: My research examines how self-nature representations promote environmental sustainability, the consequences of discrete positive emotions, how relationships with family and pets affect health and well-being, and how people form impressions of others.
Personal Interests: Hiking in national parks, astronomy, photography, good restaurants, basketball (college, WNBA, NBA), and catering to the every whim of the world's cutest puppy Leo.
Anjana Lakshmi
(she/her)
Indiana University
Professional Interests:Social categorization, stereotyping, and prejudice; socioeconomic status; social face perception and mental representations; nonverbal transmission of stereotypes.
Personal Interests: Movies and television, food and travel, reading, hiking and enjoying nature, time with family (especially my kiddo), dogs.
Christopher K. Marshburn
(he/him)
University of Kentucky
Professional Interests: Inter- and intra-personal factors that influence how people think about, understand, perpetuate, and cope with racism.
Personal Interests: Watching movies, talking about movies, and playing video games. I'm always down to play flag football (former 2007 Division III preseason All-American...well, second team, but still something, right?)
Elizabeth Haines
(she/her)
William Patterson University
Professional Interests: Social perception, stereotyping, sexism, implicit measurement
Personal Interests: Gardening, killing/neglecting plants, yoga, complaining that I am sore from yoga, cooking, overeating, NYT puzzles, my children (other children, okay, too), skiing, heated clothing, clever people.
Eric Hehman
(he/him)
McGill University
Professional Interests: Prejudice, discrimination, intergroup dynamics
Personal Interests: Fitting as many olives as possible into my body
Heidi A. Vuletich
(she/her)
University of Denver
Professional Interests: Professional Interests: Regional and context-based differences in intergroup bias, structural inequality, and disparities in STEM.
Personal Interests: Hiking, biking, camping, backpacking, exploring new places, and just being out in nature.
Jim Wirth
(he/him)
The Ohio State University at Newark
Professional Interests: I study group dynamics, focusing on ostracism (being excluded and ignored), the response to a group member leaving, and when individuals choose to leave a group. I also investigate what motivated individuals to ostracize others.
Personal Interests: Running, swimming, wrenching on an old BMW convertible, house projects, kayaking, dog walking, kiddo taxi, Lego, and appreciating downtime with family.
Jordan Daley
(he/him)
New York University
Professional Interests: I study the psychological processes that underlie social attitudes, person-perception, and intergroup relations. I examine these psychological processes in the context of relevant, real-world environments.
Personal Interests: I'm big into basketball and soccer. I also enjoy music of all kinds - mostly listening. I'm super into fantasy/sci-fi movies and books. Finally, I enjoy spending time with friends, family, and my dog!
Kristina Olson
(she/her)
Princeton University
Professional Interests: social cognitive development, social categories, psych of gender, transgender children, prejudice and stereotyping
Personal Interests: the life cycle of food: gardening, cooking, eating; card games and board games; reading
Michael Bernstein
(he/him)
Penn State University Abington College
Professional Interests: Face memory and face processing; social ostracism, inclusion, and exclusion; group categorization
Personal Interests: Being a dad; good and bad movies; good TV; reading; cooking; spending time with my kiddo; video games; board games
Paul Eastwick
(he/him)
University of California Davis
Professional Interests: attraction, close relationships, interpersonal perception, gender, evolutionary psychology, attachment
Personal Interests: running, karaoke, wine, cooking, pool volleyball
Shira Gabriel
(she/her)
Professional Interests: I study collective effervescence (the importance of immersion in large crowds for well-being; how nontraditional targets (like TV shows) can fill belongings needs; and the needs for social embeddedness and sacredness in life.
Personal Interests: I like spending time with my family and friends, seeing live music, reading books, playing euchre and mahjong, watching bad TV shows, and reading about bad TV shows online.
Alison Ledgerwood
(she/her)
University of California Davis
Professional Interests: Social-cognitive biases; counteracting scientists' own biases; understanding how people think about hierarchical social systems; collaboratively engineering systems and practices to make science more open, inclusive, and informative.
Personal Interests: Spending time outside, collaboratively changing policies and practices to better support marginalized kids, reading, cooking, and when I'm having big feelings, songwriting.
Amani ("Manny") El-Alayli
(she/her)
Eastern Washington University
Professional Interests: My research interests include stereotyping and discrimination; the various factors that bias our impressions of others; self-enhancement biases; and whatever miscellaneous weird things I happen to see people do.
Personal Interests: I like to ski and snowboard, play board games, walk around unfamiliar cities, attempt home improvement, and play sports. I love playing volleyball on all surfaces both above and below land.
Chris Agnew
(he/him)
Purdue University
Professional Interests: Close relationships, including commitment processes, dissolution processes, social network influence, and relationship timing. More recent interests in how relationships play out in virtual reality.
Personal Interests: I love people, music, food, & the natural world. Combining all four is as good as it gets! I also may spend too much time playing Words With Friends. Hey, they say recognition is the first step...
Donal Carlston
(he/him)
Professor Emeritus, Purdue University
Professional Interests: Impression formation, associative processes and all other social cognitionish stuff.
Personal Interests: Reading, writing, the Personal Preference board game, basketball, pool volleyball, listening to music, Duck.
Emily Balcetis
(she/her)
New York University
Professional Interests: Motivated social cognition and self-regulation, as applied to probing causes of and solutions to disparities in health, decision-making, the law, leadership, and other topics
Personal Interests: Finding awe, laughing, friendships, creating community, hiking, eating, yoga-ing, making messes, and momming
Franki Y. H. Kung
(he/him)
Purdue University
Professional Interests: Building culturally inclusive and humanizing workplaces, fostering understanding and grace in difficult communication and disagreement, regulating self and multiple goals for success and wellness
Personal Interests: Movies, traveling, food, plays/playwriting, shopping at costco...
Jessica Remedios
(she/her)
Tufts University
Professional Interests: Stigma, identity, intersectionality, multiracial identity, social cognition, inclusive methods
Personal Interests: Movies and TV, board games, hanging out at a brewery or bar with friends (sometimes while playing board games), running, skating, trivia (failing to answer questions that should be in my wheelhouse)
LaCount "JJ" Togans
(he/him)
Lafayette College
Professional Interests: ambivalence, attitudes and persuasion, self-conscious emotions, cross-cultural psychology (e.g., self-construal, dialectical thinking, tightness-looseness)
Personal Interests: video games, music production, cooking and baking, reality TV, collecting Pokemon cards, reminiscing over 2000s pop culture
Keith Maddox
(he/him)
Tufts University
Professional Interests: Social cognition of stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination with a focus on mental representation; strategies to facilitate intergroup dialogue around racial bias remediation (e.g., emotion regulation, humor); Anti-bias education.
Personal Interests: Movies and television, science fiction reading, science podcasts, squash, golf, dancing, karaoke, music. Socializing with family and friends. And cocktails.
Mary Murphy
(she/her/ella)
Indiana University, Apple University, Equity Accelerator
Professional Interests: Stereotyping, prejudice, self and social identity, motivation, inequality, how to create more equitable and inclusive learning and working environments
Personal Interests: Being a stay-at-home mom to my dogs (I wish!), reading for fun, gardening, pilates, strength training, swimming, hiking, learning the cello, trying to make the world a less terrible place!
Pam Smith
(she/her)
Rady School of Management
Professional Interests: hierarchy of all sorts (e.g., power, status), construal level, social cognition
Personal Interests: weightlifting, music (listening to, seeing live, singing), reading, hiking, traveling, trying new food/drink, cleaning and organizing (the environment but also my home).
Rebecca M. Carey
(she/her)
Princeton University
Professional Interests: social class, adversity, close relationships, inequality, health and well-being, culture, intergroup interactions
Personal Interests: TV and film, horror, games (of all kind!), taking photos, animals (of all kind!)
Thekla Morgenroth
(they/them)
Purdue University
Professional Interests: The causes and consequences of different systems of social categorization with a particular focus on the gender/sex binary and its consequences for women and LGBTQ+ people.
Personal Interests: Food (making it and eating it), games (board games, video games, card games, all the games), karaoke, hiking, spending time in nature, my cat Kartoffel, traveling, napping.
Ximena Arriaga
(she/her/ella)
Professional Interests: close relationships, partner abuse and maltreatment, social connection and inclusion, the future of social psychology
Personal Interests: watching lots and lots of movies, flying airplanes, going to Chile, avoiding cooking