Meet The Team
Abigail Scholer
Batten Family Bicentennial Distinguished Leadership Professor of Public Policy and Psychology, Lab Director
Abby received her Ph.D. in social psychology from Columbia University in 2009. She recently joined the UVA faculty in Fall 2023 after 12 years at the University of Waterloo as the Canada Research Chair in Motivated Social Cognition. She is a motivation scientist and social psychologist whose research interests relate to the study of self-regulation, motivation, and social cognition, as broadly described on the lab home page. These days, she is particularly passionate about investigating what people understand about regulating motivation—metamotivation—and how this affects their overall success at goal pursuit. When she’s not working, Abby enjoys spending time with her family, traveling, reading a great novel, and coloring outside the lines.
Alec Davis
Lab Manager for Motivation Science Lab
Alec Davis is the lab manager for the Social Motivation Lab at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. He Is also the lab manager of the Culture, History, Identity, and Policy Lab. He achieved a B.S. in Psychology with certificates in Athletic Healthcare and Disability Rights & Services at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he also earned a varsity letter as a member of the Men’s Rowing team. Outside of research, he enjoys running, climbing, being outdoors, and spending time with friends and family.
Graduate Students
The following graduate students are currently affiliate members of the lab at the University of Waterloo and collaborating with Dr. Scholer on various projects described below.
Lab Alumni
Kassandra Cortes - Statistics Canada
Abdo Elnakouri - Northwestern University
Jeffrey Hughes - Employment and Social Development Canada
Erik Jansen - Impact Canada Fellow
David Kille - Instagram
Jane Klinger - Corona Insights
Franki Kung - Purdue University
Jhotisha Mugon - University of Victoria
Andriy Struk - Quantitative Trader in partnership with Alex Struk
Amanda Wudarzewski - Avidbots Corporation