Selected Alumni from the Lab, many of whom who have gone on to get into PhD programs, are highlighted below.

Gökçe Sancak Aydın, PhD

Email Gökçe joined the lab in the Spring of 2014 as a visiting scholar and researcher. She graduated from Ege University in 2006, majoring in psychological counseling and guidance. She worked as a psychological counselor for 3 years, and completed a doctoral degree in the Psychological Counseling and Guidance Department at Middle East Technical University (METU) in Turkey. Her research interests include mate selection, cognition, and culture. She is now a professor of counseling at Bozok University in Turkey.

Rachael Carmen, MA

Website Email Rachael joined the lab in Fall 2009, after graduating from SUNY New Paltz in the Spring of 2009 with her BA in Psychology (minoring in Evolutionary Studies and History). Her research interests lie in human sexuality in general, and the female sexual response in particular. By combining ideas from various disciplines in psychology (including Evolutionary Psychology), she hopes to get at age-old questions regarding the female orgasm. Rachael was the first-ever student signed up in the SUNY New Paltz EvoS program. Rachael currently teaches classes related to evolution at Marist College.

Ben Crosier, PhD

Website Email Dr. Crosier served as a postdoctoral fellow at Dartmouth College's Center for Technology and Behavioral Health. His primary research centers on building predictive models of health behavior with social media data, machine learning, and social network analysis. He also works on developing new ways to collect social media data, focusing on web-based marketing. He currently lives in California and he rides a snow board.

Haley Moss Dillon, Ph.D.

Website Email Haley Dillon earned her Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology from Kansas State University. She is also alumni of the lab, graduating with her M.A. in Psychology at SUNY New Paltz after completing a B.A. in Psychology at SUNY Plattsburgh. Haley currently teaches at Marist College, SUNY Plattsburgh, and SUNY New Paltz.

Jason Diffenderfer, MA

Email Jason served as Dr. Geher’s Graduate Teaching Assistant for his Experimental Psychology course during the Fall 2004 semester. Glenn was Jason’s advisor for his master’s thesis, titled Mating Intelligence, Machiavellianism, and Self-Monitoring as Predictors of the Recognition of and Participation in Behaviors Associated with Mental Fitness Indicators, which used one of the early measures of mating intelligence that Dr. Geher developed. Jason completed his thesis in 2007. Dr. Geher greatly reinforced and built upon Jason’s research and analysis skills. Jason directly uses the skills that those experiences helped him develop each day in his current career as the Director of Institutional Research at Pace University.

Jessica Fell, MA

Website Email Jessica joined the lab in the fall of 2012. She completed her undergrad at Marist College, majoring in business. After working as a human resource professional for several years, Jessica enrolled in the MA program at New Paltz. Her research interests (and thesis work) investigated topics in health psychology through an evolutionary perspective. She currently teaches at Dutchess County Community College

Daniel Gambacorta, PhD

Email Daniel graduated in 2009 from SUNY New Paltz, with a major in psychology and minors in sociology and evolutionary studies. He then completed a PhD at New Mexico State University in the social psychology program. He is interested in social status, morality, positive psychology, and mating. He is currently a lecturer in the Department of Psychological Science at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.

Daniel Glass, PhD

Website Email Daniel graduated from the lab in 2012 with his M.A. He is interested in evolutionary clinical psychology, the study of how biological evolution has shaped the mind, and the resulting implications for the classification, understanding, and treatment of mental disorders. Daniel completed a PhD in Suffolk University’s clinical psychology program, working on a dissertation on the emotion-processing function of dreams. He serves as Membership Officer of the Northeastern Evolutionary Psychology Society (NEEPS), project leader on PsychTable.org, and secretary of the Applied Evolutionary Psychology Society.

Morgan Gleason, MA - in PhD program

Email Website Morgan graduated from Johnson & Wales University in 2008, with a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting! After spending 5 years as a business professional, she enrolled in the Master’s program at SUNY New Paltz to pursue her true passion: Psychology. Morgan was immediately drawn to the enthusiasm of the EvoS lab on campus and joined the lab in the Fall of 2012. Her Master's thesis involved examining how various measures of emotional intelligence correlated with musical ability. She obtained her MA in Psychology in December of 2014 and taught a variety of courses at SUNY New Paltz as an adjunct. Morgan is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology at DePaul University in Chicago.

Amanda Guitar, MA - in PhD program

Website Email Mandy joined the lab in Fall 2010 after graduating from New Mexico State University ’10 with a BA in Psychology and a Minor in Theatre Arts. Her research interests lie in a combination of Evolutionary and Health Psychology, with a particular focus on anxiety in mating. She is completing a PhD in Biological Anthropology at the University of Alabama.

Raina Hafftka, BA - in PhD program

Email Raina joined the lab in spring 2013 as an undergraduate assistant. She majored in Psychology with a minor in Disaster Studies. Her research interests include evolutionary psychology, clinical psychology, and the psychology of women. She is currently in a PhD program in Counseling Psychology at Auburn University.

Richard Holler, MA - in PhD program

Email As an undergraduate, Richard majored in Psychology (BA), minored in Biology, and encountered the utilitarian perspectives of Evolutionary Anthropology and Psychology under Dr. David Puts at The Pennsylvania State University. Richard was also fortunate to assist Dr. Daniel Conroy-Beam and Dr. Laith Al-Shawaf from the Buss Lab at The University of Texas at Austin as a post-bac. His research interests consist of the development of sexual and romantic desire and orientation from an evolutionary perspective as well as their interplay with sex hormones. Outside of his Research Assistantship with Dr. Carol Vazquez’s Social-Cognition Lab, Richard served as one of the lab’s Co-Supervisers, a Teaching Assistant for Evolutionary Psychology, and he served as the Assistant of the Evolutionary Studies Program. He is currently pursuing a PhD in Evolutionary Psychology at Oakland University.

Olivia Jewell, MA - in PhD program

Email Olivia joined the lab in the fall of 2016 after graduating from James Madison University with a B.A. in psychology and a minor in music. Her interests include mate selection, music's role in evolution, and the evolutionary importance of social intelligence. Additionally, Olivia worked as a Teaching Assistant at SUNY New Paltz for undergraduate Research Methods. Looking forward, Olivia is planning to pursue a PhD in Experimental Psychology at Brunel University London (where she has been accepted).

Laura Johnsen, BA - in PhD program

Website Email Laura joined the lab in 2007 as a junior in high school. She majored in both Psychology and Theatre Arts with a concentration in Costume Design and she was an Evolutionary Studies Minor (and the President of the Evolutionary Studies Club). Her current research projects are studying divorce patterns and their correlations with the male: female mortality ratio, applying theories from evolutionary psychology to current sex and health education curriculum in high school settings, analyzing how childhood injuries may relate to life history strategy, and analyzing Harlequin Blaze novels from an Evolutionary Perspective. Laura is currently a PhD student in Biological Anthropology at Binghamton University.

Rebecca Newmark, MA - in PhD program

Website Email Rebecca joined the lab in Fall 2011 after graduating from Binghamton University in 2009. Her research interests lie in evolutionary psychology, with a particular focus on mate selection and oxytocin. She is now in a PhD program in social psychology at Loyola University in Chicago.

Ashley Peterson, MA - in PhD program

Email Ashley joined the lab in the spring of 2010, after graduating from the University of Delaware with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and a minor in biology. Her research interests lie in personality and individual differences from an evolutionary perspective. She is currently working on a project with Glenn Geher investigating the relationships between Mating Intelligence, Personality, Sociosexuality, Life History Strategy, and preferences for certain sexual acts. She is currently in a PhD program in biological anthropology at Binghamton University.

Melvin Philip, MA - in PhD program

Email Melvin was a graduate student in Dr. Geher’s Evolutionary Psychology Laboratory. He is a student in the Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior PhD Program at Binghamton University, working in Dr. David Sloan Wilson’s laboratory. Topics of interest include mate choice, life-history strategy, the evolutionary basis of consumer behavior, religion, and deception. She is currently in a PhD program in biology at Binghamton University.

Vania Rolon, MA - in PhD program

Website Email Vania has been on the run ever since she left her small city in Bolivia. She first completed her B.A. at SUNY Plattsburgh, followed by her M.A. at SUNY New Paltz. She is currently completing her PhD in Culture and Evolution at Brunel University London under a studentship with David Schmitt. Vania’s interests include mating strategies, sex differences, the suppression of female sexuality by both sexes, and heterodoxy in academia. She hopes to one day become a professor and pass down her enthusiasm for evolutionary psychology and psychological statistics down to her students, the way her mentors did with her.

Andrew Shimkus, MA - in PsyD program

Email Andrew joined the lab in the fall of 2013. He graduated from the University of Tampa with a BA in Psychology and a minor in philosophy. His interests include emotional intelligence and mate selection. He is now a doctoral student in clinical psychology at the University of Hartford.

Nicole Wedberg, MA

Website Email Nicole joined the lab in the summer of 2014. She graduated from California State University of Fullerton with a BA in Psychology in 2013, and then spent a year doing volunteer research at SUNY Albany in evolutionary psychology. Her interests include mate selection and evolutionary mismatch. Nicole completed the MA program in Psychology at SUNY New Paltz and served as the assistant to the Evolutionary Studies program and the EP at NP lab supervisor. She is also co-author, with Glenn Geher, of the book Positive Evolutionary Psychology: Darwin's Guide to Living a Richer Life (Oxford University Press; forthcoming).