MY THINKING STYLES - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Fellow
- Senior Research Director
Dr. Mary Ann Hanson has been part of Pearson's global Research and Development team since October of 2016. She is an Industrial/Organizational Psychologist with a PhD from the University of Minnesota. In her role as a Senior Research Director at Pearson, she provides research expertise for the North American sales team, answering client questions and helping them design sound solutions using Pearson's assessments.
Dr. Hanson conducts research to develop, evaluate, and improve Pearson products, and to support the use of these products in client organizations. This includes criterion-related validation and adverse impact analyses, development of updated assessments and reports, and evaluation of new releases and product enhancements. Within the team she serves as the content expert for personality and interest inventories including the Workstyle Lens (WS-Lens).
Prior to joining Pearson, she worked at Personnel Decisions Research Institutes (PDRI) in Minneapolis (and Tampa) for more than 15 years, conducting selection and classification research for the U.S. Army, Navy and the FAA. She also conducted training and employee development research for the Air Force and the Alabama Department of Transportation. While with PDRI, she helped lead the development of the O*NET, a national database of job description information. She left PDRI to found a small nonprofit company (CCCR) conducting research on career development/decision-making and issues facing the nonprofit sector. CCCR obtained two large NSF grants to conduct research focused on career paths and the barriers and supports to success. CCCR also conducted research supported by the U.S. Department of Education to develop career guidance tools. More recently she worked at ACT for seven years, leading their Career Transitions Research Department with primary responsibility for developing and providing research support for their "noncognitive" products, including interest and values assessments, career guidance tools, as well as psychosocial, behavioral, and personality assessments. She is a published author of more than 20 journal articles and chapters on selection research, career development, job performance, and education, and has presented more than 40 papers at professional conferences.
Mary Ann Hanson, PhD named a Fellow of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP)
March 21, 2019: Mary Ann Hanson, PhD, was been named a Fellow of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP).
Dr. Mary Ann Hanson was one of 20 distinguished industrial-organizational psychologists to be awarded SIOP Fellow status on Thursday, April 4, 2019 at the 34th Annual SIOP Conference.
Dr. Hanson has played major roles in research projects for federal and state agencies, the US military and educational organizations. Her vita includes work for the US Army and Air Force, the FAA, the Alabama Department of Transportation, the National Science Foundation and the American College Testing Organization. She generated key proposal ideas, conducted and led significant research, and wrote technical reports, articles and book chapters disseminating results of the research. Dr. Hanson has had important leadership roles in projects studying selection, crew resource management skills, job training and rotation, and career development. Her work in these areas certainly helped the client organizations, and also made important contributions to the I-O psychology literature and knowledge base.
Job Titles:
- Assessment Consultant - Global Contracts
Job Titles:
- Assessment Consultant - North America East
In May of 2015, Keisha Phillips, Ph.D. joined Pearson's Research and Development (R&D) Team as a Senior Research Director within Pearson TalentLens. In her role as Senior Research Director, she works closely with key stakeholders to define a long-term talent selection and assessment strategy for Pearson. Dr. Phillips collaborates with content experts on the Global Research & Development Team to develop and validate assessments, create/present webinars and training courses, and to provide expertise and support to both our North American Assessment Consultant Team as well as Pearson clients regarding talent assessment products. Within the team she, serves as the content expert for the BMCT-II, the Raven's assessments, and the DAT™ Next Generation tests (DAT-NG).
Prior to working for Pearson, Dr. Phillips worked in the public sector for eight years where she was accountable for building and leading the recruitment, volunteer services, training, and examination divisions for various counties. She developed, revised and administered selection criteria for selection, promotion and job classifications including the development of assessment centers, written exams, performance exams, structured interviews, training and experience evaluations, etc. to assess skills, abilities, aptitudes, and interests as aids in selection, placement, and promotion for various roles including police, fire and corrections. She also served as an expert witness in adverse impact and discrimination litigation regarding the selection, demotion or promotion process and as an internal consultant to the executive leadership team regarding topics such as change management, employee engagement, succession planning, and employee/leadership development.
Dr. Phillips earned an M.S. in Industrial Organizational (I/O) Psychology from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga followed by a doctorate in I/O Psychology from the University of Central Florida. Over the past 17 years she has taught several psychology, statistics, and human resources courses and served as an online adjunct professor and dissertation committee member and chair for over 10 years. She has written several academic and technical papers and articles, presented at numerous conferences, led various diversity seminars and co-authored a book chapter on naturalistic decision making.
Job Titles:
- Manager of Product Development
Matt Stewart has been at Pearson since 2011 and has led our global Product Development team since 2014. He is a Chartered Occupational Psychologist, with a specialist background in psychometric testing and specific interests in personality and ability assessments. He sits on Pearson's Scientific Council-a group responsible for establishing, documenting and overseeing the scientific standards and methods utilized during product development. Prior to joining Pearson, he worked at a personality assessment publisher for a number of years.
Matt's global product development team is primarily responsible for enhancements to TalentLens' product portfolio and delivering consultancy projects, such as custom products and client research studies.
In recent years Matt has led the transformation of the TalentLens portfolio, updating classic assessments such as the Watson-Glaser™ Critical Thinking Appraisal, the Differential Aptitude Tests™ and the Raven's™ Progressive Matrices assessments to introduce new features such as adaptive testing methodologies, item response theory scoring techniques and global product versions. He has led a range of consultancy projects for a number of organizations across the world.