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Bryan Acton, Ph.D.
I am fascinated by adopting cutting-edge statistical techniques for studying the multi-level dynamics of leadership in teams. This includes designing simulations using agent-based models to study the process of leadership emergence, and using machine learning to improve the quality of items used to measure leadership.
Academic Appointments
Assistant Professor of Leadership & Organizational Behavior
Binghamton University School of Management
Vestal, NY
Current - 2022
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Durham University Business School (Centre for Leadership & Followership)
Durham, UK
2022 - 2020
- Mentor: Dr. Robert Lord
Education
Ph.D., Industrial/Organizational Psychology
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Blacksburg, VA
2020 - 2016
- Dissertation: Using agent-based modeling to test and integrate process-oriented perspectives of leadership emergence
- Faculty Advisor: Dr. Roseanne Foti
M.S., Industrial/Organizational Psychology
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Blacksburg, VA
2016 - 2014
- Thesis: Working in harmony: the impact of personality on the short- and long-run dynamics of team cohesion
B.A., Psychology
Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts
North Adams, MA
2013 - 2009
- Honors Program
- Summa Cum Laude
- Business Minor & Independent Study
Publications
Research Funding
Rater Memory and Measurement: Moving Toward Response Process Validity
$1,020,000
Army Research Institute
2026 - 2022
- Team: Hansbrough, T. K., Hanges, P J., Acton, B. P., Balthazard, P., & Zheng, X.
- Role: Co-Investigator
Book chapters
Implicit Leadership and Followership Theories: From the leader/follower within to leaders/followers in plural and in flux
Susanne Braun, Karolina W. Nieberle, Bryan P. Acton
SAGE Handbook of Leadership (2nd ed.)
Forthcoming
Leadership identity at a crossroads: New ways of theorizing measuring and modeling dynamic states
Olga Epitropaki, Bryan P. Acton, Karolina W. Nieberle
Oxford Handbook of Leadership, Followership and Identity
Forthcoming
Teaching Experience
Business Statistics
Binghamton University
Binghamton, NY
Current - 2022
- Taught class to students in Management PhD program
Leadership Module (Power and Status- PSYC 42115)
Durham University, Psychology Masters Program
Durham, UK
2021 - 2021
- Taught two separate 3-hour lectures. The first was an Introduction to leadership lecture and the second was an inclusive leadership lecture.
Guest Lectures
Virginia Tech
Blacksburg, VA
2020 - 2016
- I taught guest lectures in topics such as leadership, teams, and organizational psychology/behavior.
Intro to Psychology Recitation
Virginia Tech, Psychology Department
Blacksburg, VA
2015 - 2014
- Taught lectures to class of 20+ students that accompanied main lecture for introduction to psychology.
- Lectured and helped students during office hours with subjects such as research methods, and core content areas of psychology.
I received the “Favorite Faculty Award”, awarded by the student services department at Virginia Tech.
Other Research Experience
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Durham University Business School (Centre for Leadership & Followership)
Durham, UK
Current - 2020
- Working on multiple projects including a co-lead on a project investigating identity invention dynamics in college students in the UK. Developed entire script in R for measuring identity dynamics using dynamical systems perspective developed by Dr. Steven Boker and colleagues.
- Taught multiple R workshops to faculty and staff across multiple subjects such as text transcription and basic data wrangling.
- Have multiple publications and book chapters under review, or with submission in the coming months. Also working on putting together new funding proposal for Army Research Institute with Dr. Robert Lord and colleagues on using predictive modeling to assess memory processing in items used in leadership scales.
Lab Coordinator and Graduate Research Assistant
Interface of Leadership and Teams Lab (PI: Dr. Roseanne Foti)
Virginia Tech
2019 - 2016
- Worked with team of faculty, as only Graduate Assistant for Army Research Institute Basic Research Grant titled: Episodic and Semantic Memory Effects on Leadership Measurement and Prediction of Leadership Outcomes. Also was ILT lab coordinator for two years.
- Led data collection across three different studies, two using larger online sampling, and one in-lab study with Virginia Tech corps of cadets.
- Designed multiple tools for both data collection and data analysis, including a python program to code linguistic features of leadership items, random forest models (using R) for predicting memory processing of leadership judgements, and an experimental procedure using PsychoPy.
As a part of my role as lab coordinator for two years in the ILT lab, I directly mentored nine undergraduates. I am excited to share that five of these students continued on to masters programs, and two continued on to doctoral programs.
Blogs Written (About)
Currently writing posts on data analysis tutorials using R, improving the process of team science, and other topics.
bpacton.com
N/A
Current - 2020
Industry Experience
Advisor on Implementation Science Committee
Promote Care Prevent Harm
https://promotecarepreventharm.org/advisors
Current - 2021
- Lead developer on Shiny application used to collect data and assess development of self-regulation in schools.
Summer Graduate Assistant
Office of the Provost
Virginia Tech
2017 - 2017
- Assisted in creating evaluation tool for University’s “new faculty grant”.
- Co Authored article published in issue of journal of Society of Women Engineers magazine.
Professional Graduate Assistant
University Office of Professional Development (UOPD)
Virginia Tech
2016 - 2015
- Designed/distributed questionnaires for UOPD’s professional development programs using Qualtrics.
- Shadowed/assisted various speakers during UOPD’s organizational development workshops.
R Workshops Taught
Transcribing text and initial text analysis using R
Durham University Centre for Leadership & Followership
N/A
8/2021
- Taught 2-hour long workshop to smaller group of faculty and graduate students.
- Covered how to use “TranscribeR” package and “tidytext” package in R to analyze text data
Introduction to the Tidyverse and data analysis in R
Virginia Tech ILT Lab
N/A
2/2021
- Taught 1.5 hour long workshop to a small group of PhD students and undergraduates.
I have my data. Now what? A tutorial on data cleaning, wrangling, and initial analysis via R
Durham University PhD Students
N/A
12/2020
- Taught 2-hour long workshop which served as an introduction to R for social scientists to a group of 15+ PhD Students.
Conference Presentations
An application and tutorial for creating within-person memory-sourced leadership scales
Speaker & Lead Author
Academy of Management Annual Conference
2021
- Authored with Drs. Robert Lord, Tiffany Keller Hansbrough and Roseanne Foti
More than liking: the role of memory systems and language in leadership ratings
Lead author on Poster
Society of Industrial Organizational Psychology Annual Conference
2021
- Authored with Drs. Robert Lord, Tiffany Keller Hansbrough and Roseanne Foti
Assessing the impact of self-identity on organizational outcomes using an implicit measure
Speaker & Lead Author
Academy of Management Annual Conference
2020
- Authored with Drs. Robert Lord, Tiffany Keller Hansbrough and Roseanne Foti
Capturing the process of cohesion emergence using continuous rating assessments.
Author, Speaker & Organized Symposium
Society of Industrial Organizational Psychology Annual Conference
2019
- Authored with Dr. Charles Calderwood and Zach Mastrich
Ready & willing: assessing profiles of leader/follower self-schemas.
Author & Speaker
Society of Industrial Organizational Psychology Annual Conference
2019
- Authored with Dr. Roseanne Foti
Agent-based modeling: current and future directions in organizational psychology.
co-Author on Poster
Society of Industrial Organizational Psychology Annual Conference
2019
- Authored with Dr. Trevin Glasgow & Dr. Roseanne Foti
An examination of psychological collectivism using item response theory.
co-Author on Poster
Society of Industrial Organizational Psychology Annual Conference
2018
- Authored with C. Du & Dr. Roseanne Foti
Putting two-and-two together: using sociometric measures to capture cohesion emergence
Speaker & Lead Author
Society of Industrial Organizational Psychology Annual Conference
2017
- Authored with Dr. Michael Braun
Increasing the power to detect adverse impact in small selection contexts.
co-Author on Poster
Society of Industrial Organizational Psychology Annual Conference
2017
- Authored with Dr. Maureen McCusker, Derek Burns, Nathan Wycoff, & Dr. Neil Hauenstein
The role of the “mere presence effect” in the development of intra-group cohesion.
Lead author on Poster
Society for Personality & Social Psychology
2017
- Authored with Drs. Yashna Shah, Danny Axsom, & Roseanne Foti
I received a travel award to attend the annual conference for The Society for the Improvement of Psychological Science (SIPS). From this and other experiences, I developed a passion for improving science through improved research methodology. If you are interested in an expanded list of presentations, please email me.
Social Psychology (PSYC 2048)
Virginia Tech, Psychology Department
Blacksburg, VA
2017 - 2016