Faculty / Staff
Faculty and Staff
Catherine Connelly
Dr. Catherine Connelly is professor of organizational behaviour at the DeGroote School of Business at McMaster University. She holds a Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in Organizational Behaviour, and is a member of the College of New Scholars of the Royal Society of Canada. She is a former associate editor for Human Relations and currently serves on the board of the Journal of Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management Review. Her research focuses on the attitudes, behaviours, and experiences of non-standard workers (e.g., temporary agency workers, contractors, temporary foreign workers), the effects of leadership styles on leader well-being, and knowledge hiding in organizations.

Mailing Address
DSB-412
McMaster University
1280 Main Street West
Hamilton, ON, Canada
L8S 4M4

Current Students and Staff

Ali Lefcoe
Ali Lefcoe
Ali joined the PhD program at McMaster University’s DeGroote School of Business in September 2018. She completed her Masters in Industrial Relations and Human Resources (MIRHR) as well as a BSc in Psychology and HR at U of T. Her research interests include: emotion regulation and burnout; leadership; personality; organizational culture and accountability.

Anne St-Amand
Anne St-Amand
Anne has a PhD in Linguistics from the University of Toronto and an MA in Linguistics from the University of Ottawa. She is research coordinator for Dr. Catherine Connelly.

Christina Yin
Christina Yin
Christina is a fourth-year Health Sciences Honours student at McMaster University. She is interested in the field of public health, especially epidemiology and biostatics. She is passionate about inclusive design research.

Esther Arase
Esther Arase
Esther is a fourth year student in Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour with a minor in Mental Health, Addiction and Society. She is looking to pursue a career in the mental health sphere. Her research interests are centred around understanding what motivates people to behave in certain ways, make certain decisions and how psychology can be applied to many areas of our lives. More generally, she seeks to understand people and use that understanding to help people.

Jennifer Ho
Jennifer Ho
Jennifer joined the PhD program in Management of Organizational Behaviour and Human Resources at McMaster University's DeGroote School of Business in September 2018. Her research interests include workplace diversity, employee well-being, occupational stress, workplace discrimination, and positive organizational behaviour.

Megan Murphy
Megan Murphy
Megan is a PhD candidate in the Management of Organizational Behaviour and Human Resources (MOBHR) program at McMaster University. Her research interests include psychological contracts, formal mentoring programs, contingent work arrangements, stress, social network usage, and organizational deviance. Megan currently holds a SSHRC doctoral fellowship for her work on formal mentoring programs and psychological contracts.

Nicole Badzioch
Nicole Badzioch
Nicole is a fourth year Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour Honours student, pursuing a minor in business. She is interested in how psychology can be applied to better understand the people and systems in an organization.

Ryan Mussell
Ryan Mussell
Ryan is a fourth year student in Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour with a specialization in mental health. She is looking to pursue a career in counselling psychology, and she has a specific interest in studying individual differences in human behaviour within the field of mental health as well as organizational behaviour.

Vanessa Natareno
Vanessa Natareno
Vanessa is a third year Arts & Science student combining in Psychology, Neuroscience, and Behaviour. She is particularly interested in how human behaviour and psychology principles can be applied to create efficient, diverse, and inclusive workplaces.
Former Students

Abeeda Pooja
Abeeda Pooja
Abeeda joined the PhD program in Management of Organizational Behaviour & Human Resources at the DeGroote School of Business in September 2015. Her research interests include employee attitudes and behaviour. She is particularly interested in studying how contextual, interpersonal, and individual factors inform employees’ help-giving and help-withholding behaviours in organizations.

Adam Buffett
Adam Buffett
Adam is a Commerce student in the Degroote School of Business at McMaster University, with a planned specialization in Finance and Accounting. Adam worked with Professor Connelly as a research assistant. His role included transcribing interview recordings as well as conducting online research about employment in Canada.

Ani Chénier
Ani Chénier
Ani holds an MA in Anthropology from McMaster University. She worked as a research coordinator for Dr. Catherine Connelly from August, 2015 to March, 2016.

Chanchal Bhandari
Chanchal Bhandari
Chanchal is a fifth year Psychology, Neuroscience, and Behaviour Honours student at McMaster University. She is highly interested in research revolving around human behaviour, especially in social contexts, allowing her to study it across various research areas.

Christa Wilkin
Christa Wilkin
Drs. Connelly and Wilkin have published three articles in highly regarded journals and two book chapters on non-standard work arrangements (e.g., volunteers; contingent work) and employee well-being (e.g., wellness initiatives; justice). Dr. Wilkin, a professor at York University, has work published in journals such as the Journal of Organizational Behavior, International Journal of Human Resource Management, and Personality and Individual Differences in the areas of non-standard relationships and well-being.

Daniel McLean
Daniel McLean
Daniel is a fifth year Psychology, Neuroscience, and Behaviour Honours student with a specialization in Mental Health. His research interests include disabilities as well as behavioural analysis.

Diana Serban
Diana Serban
I am a former Psychology, Neuroscience, & Behaviour student. My thesis investigated the relationship between leader well-being and transformational leadership behaviours. I am interested in Occupational Health & Safety, and specifically the impact of leadership, stress, and well-being on organizations. I am now a Masters student in Industrial/Organizational Psychology at Saint Mary’s University. My current work includes investigating the relationship between virtual leadership and stress, mental health framework development, and safety-specific transformational leadership.

Dylantha Fernando
Dylantha Fernando
Dylantha is in his fourth year of Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour. He is interested in how we can implement organizational behaviour research into the workplace. His thesis focuses on intersectionality and hiring biases during resume screening.

Elaine Nguyen
Elaine Nguyen
Elaine is a fourth year student in the Psychology, Neuroscience, and Behaviour program, specializing in mental health. Her career/research interests are in clinical and counselling psychology, community development, and individuals with disabilities.

Gina Nguyen
Gina Nguyen
Gina is a fourth year Life sciences student at McMaster University, specializing in Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour. She is fascinated with all fields of research and especially appreciate interdisciplinary approaches!

Grant Sweeny
Grant Sweeny
Grant Sweeny graduated from McMaster with a Bachelor of Arts & Science and Business in 2020. His undergraduate thesis examined the effect of the baseline psychological stress of followers on their perceptions of transformational leadership performance. Grant is a certified nutrition coach and the owner of Grant Sweeny Nutrition Coaching.

Hufriya Kateli
Hufriya Kateli
Hufriya is a fourth year Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour Honours student at McMaster University. Her research interests involve learning about motivating operations in an organization, and how they affect employee productivity. Hufriya is also keen to understand the effects of negative feedback on employee morale and workplace satisfaction.
Isabelle Choi
Isabelle Choi
Isabelle is a fourth year Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour Honours student at McMaster University. She is enthusiastic about research within the realm of organizational psychology and human behaviour. Isabelle is highly interested about what workplace behaviours are efficient to create an effective business and aspires to go into Human Resources.

Jacqueline Chan
Jacqueline Chan
Jacqueline worked with Dr. Connelly for her undergraduate thesis project in Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour. Her thesis explored the effects of preparatory nonverbal behaviours on leadership effectiveness. She is interested in the social and cognitive perspectives of interpersonal relationships, and is particularly intrigued by the effects of implicit attitudes and cognitions on behaviours (and vice versa).

Jasneet Bains
Jasneet Bains
Jasneet is a fourth-year Psychology, Neuroscience, and Behaviour Honours student with a Specialization in Mental Health, at McMaster University. Her research interests include behaviour analysis, stress, and human memory. She is also interested in research with special populations and vulnerable groups.

Joey Legere
Joey Legere
Joey researched the effects of stress in business settings and created custom software to process and interpret physiological stress data measured using EKG, GSR, and respiration effort sensor. His other research interests are diverse, and include web-based communication and collaboration, scalp electrophysiology, and performance / error monitoring. For more information about other projects he is involved in, visit http://brain.mcmaster.ca/.
Lily Martin
Lily Martin
Lily is a third year Arts & Science student specializing in Psychology, Neuroscience, and Behaviour. Broadly speaking, her research interests are how and why individuals do things the way they do. She emphasizes interdisciplinary and dynamic thinking and hopes to pursue management and psychology.

Mahyar Garmsiri
Mahyar Garmsiri
Mahyar studied in Memorial University of Newfoundland's Masters of Science in Management program with a specialization in Organizational Behaviour and Human Resources. His projects involved familiarity and psychological well-being in the workplace, cyber workplace-deviance, and disability biases and feedback quality. His previous research experience also included perceptual psychology and neuroscience. He currently works for Lisa Isaac HR Professional Services.

Max Manglal-Lan
Max Manglal-Lan
Max is currently in his 4th year of the Honours Psychology, Neuroscience, & Behaviour program while also pursuing a minor in Commerce. He studies and has a strong passion for organizational behaviour in addition to marketing and finance. Max is very ambitious and enjoys research as well as entrepreneurial environments.

Meera Patel
Meera Patel
Meera is a fourth year Psychology, Neuroscience, and Behaviour Honours student with a specialization in Mental Health. As a keen student, she is highly interested in learning how psychology can be applied in a variety of fields and daily life.

Mona Zanhour
Mona Zanhour
Dr. Mona Zanhour is currently an Assistant Professor of Human Resource Management at California State University, Long Beach. As a doctoral student, Dr. Zanhour worked under the supervision of Dr. Connelly. In her dissertation, she examined the relationship between organizational work-family resources and work-family conflict and enrichment, mediated by balance self-efficacy. She is currently working with Dr. Connelly to explore training interventions aimed to increase balance self-efficacy and decrease stress associated with work-family conflict.

Monika Pobiedzinski
Monika Pobiedzinski
Monika is an Honours Commerce student at the DeGroote School of Business, focusing her degree towards finance and management. She began working for Professor Connelly in her first year as a data research clerk, and also worked as a research assistant. Working from audio and video recordings of interviews and experiments, and using standardized assessment tools like the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire, she prepared data for analysis.

Rasesh Shah
Rasesh Shah
Rasesh is an Ivey HBA Student and was previously a Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour student at McMaster. His research interest includes behavioural finance, leadership, and employee productivity. He also has an interest in financial markets and is looking to pursue a career in investment banking.

Rory Macleod
Rory Macleod
Rory is a fourth year Psychology Neurosciencs and Behavior student, pursuing a minor in business. He studies organizational behavior and is interested in the application of psychology principles to the workplace with the goal of creating more efficient and enjoyable work environments.

Samantha Luxmikanthan
Samantha Luxmikanthan
Samantha is a fourth year Honours Human student specializing in Autism Behavioural Sciences. Her research interests involve disabilities and human behaviour and how they play as a factor through operations within an organization, allowing her to study this interest across various research fields.

Samson Yeung
Samson Yeung

Sayaka Akisyama
Sayaka Akisyama
Sayaka worked with Dr. Connelly for her undergraduate thesis project in Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour. Her research examined leadership development through different leadership coaching styles. She is interested in human behaviours in the workplace.

Sina Farid
Sina Farid
Sina worked with Dr. Connelly to complete her honours thesis project as a fourth year Psychology, Neuroscience, and Behaviour student at McMaster University. Her thesis explored the effects of non-verbal behaviour on self-efficacy and leadership. Her interests include the effects of cognitive biases in the organizational setting and their related behavioural outcomes, specifically for managerial acquisition and promotion.

Sol Ji Kim
Sol Ji Kim
Sol Ji worked with Dr. Connelly for her Senior Honours Thesisis as a fourth year undergraduate student in Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour. Her research explored the effects of preparatory nonverbal behaviours, such as power posing, on leadership effectiveness.

Sumana Naidu
Sumana Naidu
My name is Sumana Naidu and I am a second year medical student at the University of Toronto. I am interested in the patient and physician perspectives regarding continuity of care, and am also interested in research related to the eye. I am currently a member of the Student-Senior Isolation Prevention Partnership, and am helping facilitate advisory groups as well as our first national program evaluation. I enjoy baking, cooking, and watercolour painting in my downtime!
Tuneesh Ranota
Tuneesh Ranota
Tuneesh is a fourth year Honours Life Sciences student. Her research interests include workplace discrimination, workplace diversity, workplace environments, and how organizational behaviour and psychology can be applied to real life!

Yiyu Shi
Yiyu Shi
Yiyu is a fourth year Psychology, Neuroscience, and Behaviour Honours student at McMaster University and she is working with Dr. Connelly for her Independent Lab Study. She is enthusiastic about all research projects, especially nonverbal behaviors and interpersonal relationships.

Zhuoli Zheng
Zhuoli Zheng
Zhuoli is a third year student in Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour (Mental Health Specialization). Her research interests involve how to help people with disabilities and mental illnesses better adapt in society and promote people's awareness of mental health. She wants to pursue a career in clinical psychology or counselling psychology.