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My role in the Psychology and Education Department is to serve as a course manager for the Introduction to Psychology course, mentor the graduate student lab instructor for the Psychology Statistics course, and support student and faculty research. I provide both qualitative and quantitative research consulting to the department.  With extensive independent consulting experience, I specialize in focus group data collection and survey development and analysis.  In addition to providing consulting support to the department, I host various research-oriented training sessions throughout the academic year in qualitative and quantitative computer software packages that statisticians and scholars commonly use in both research and industry, such as NVivo, SPSS, R, and SurveyMonkey.

I hold a doctorate degree in educational leadership and a master of arts degree in psychology.  As a researcher who is interested in making higher education welcoming and accessible to a diverse population of learners, I consider it a privilege to be working at my alma mater supporting student learning in psychology and education.  Within the department, I also supervise student research projects related to equity and to access to higher education.  In particular, my research interests include studying the financial and academic obstacles faced by low-income students and students of color who wish to pursue a higher education. I am particularly interested how various social identities such as race, social class, and religious/spiritual identity shape students’ experiences attending college.  Students who are interested in conducting an independent study in these areas are encouraged to email me directly at jlgagnon@mtholyoke.edu.