I am a fifth year doctoral student. I also work as Research Scientist at Personnel Decisions Research Institutes (PDRI), an SHL company.

I received my master's degree in I/O psychology from George Mason back in 2003. For the past 8 years I've worked as a full time consultant at PDRI. In 2007 decided to come back to Mason to continue my studies in the doctoral program. 

My work experience has a strong influence on some of my research projects at Mason. Over the past 8 years I've managed a number of projects dealing with training adaptability skills, selection, and measuring field performance of U.S. Army Special Operations Forces (SOF) Soldiers. My current research focuses on developing ways to use situational judgement tests (SJTs) to assess decision making skills in ambigous environments. These SJTs can be used for assessing mental adaptability skills in team leaders.  I'm also interested in identifying the knowledge and skills necessary to be culturally and interpersonally adaptable. This research can be used for selection purposes, and the developement of training programs.

In addition to my adaptability-related research, I am also interested in diversity related issues. While working on my master's degree, I worked as a graduate research assistant at the Office of Diversity Programs and Services, I was a founding member of the Psychology Student Diversity Affairs Committee, and was the graduate student representative in the Psychology Department's Diversity Affairs Committee. Currently I'm interested in looking at ways to increase minority students' interest in, and applications to, graduate programs in I/O psychology.

On a personal note, I was born in Boston, MA, grew up in Bogota, Colombia, and Ottawa, Canada. I received my Honours B.A. in Psychology from the University of Waterloo. If you have any questions about George Mason's I/O program, or my research, please feel free to email me at gferro(at)gmu.edu [replace "(at)" with "@"].