Lab director
Ramona Bobocel
Ramona received her Ph.D. in psychology from Western University in 1992 and is psychology professor at the University of Waterloo. Her research focuses on social and organizational justice, with a continuing interest in understanding how people form judgments of fairness and how they cope with unfair treatment. Ramona's research has garnered continuous funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and has been published in leading scientific journals in psychology and management. She has received numerous awards for her contributions, including the Ontario Premier’s Research Excellence Award and the CSIOP 2025 Distinguished Contributions Award. She is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, the Association for Psychological Sciences, and the Canadian Psychological Association for her sustained scientific contributions. She has served as editor and consulting editor for top journals in her field, and is past president of the Canadian Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology. In addition to her research, Ramona has consulted with several Canadian organizations to improve fairness in the workplace.
PhD students
Amy Barron
Amy completed her BA (hons.) in Psychology at the University of Calgary and her MASc in Industrial/Organizational psychology at the University of Waterloo. She is currently pursuing her PhD under the supervision of Dr. Ramona Bobocel at the University of Waterloo. Her current research focuses on examining manager explanations of bad news. Her other research interests include: manager responses to sexual harassment claims, gender discrimination, and workplace forgiveness.
Taylor Carroll
Taylor completed her Honours B.A. in Psychology with a minor in Sociology at the University of Guelph. Her Honours Thesis project investigated how perfectionistic employees experience job satisfaction and trust in their supervisor. Taylor is currently working on her MASc in Industrial-Organizational psychology under Ramona’s supervision. Her research considers why leaders might be inconsistent in their fairness behaviours (“fairness variability”) and how leaders’ fairness variability can be mitigated. In general, Taylor’s research interests include organizational justice, leadership, self-regulation, and personality.
Master's students
Duy-Kiet (Keir) Bui
Keir completed his Honours BSc in Psychology at the University of British Columbia – Okanagan. His undergraduate thesis focused on consensual non-monogamy among young adults in long-distance relationships. He is set to begin his MASc in Industrial/Organizational Psychology in September 2026 under Dr. Bobocel's supervision. His current research interests involve organizational justice, artificial intelligence, and workplace discrimination.
Alison Stephens
Alison completed her Honours BA in Psychology at the University of Waterloo. Her undergraduate honours thesis investigated whether employees' fairness perceptions are related to their support for diversity initiatives in their organization. She is currently pursuing a MASc in Industrial/Organizational Psychology under the supervision of Dr. Bobocel. Her master's research builds on the foundation of her honours thesis by exploring the mechanisms through which fairness perceptions shape support for diversity initiatives.
Abigail Pew
Abigail completed her Honours BSc in Psychology at the University of Western Ontario. Her undergraduate thesis investigated gender differences in the experience of same-gender conflict among same-ranking coworkers in middle management. Abby is currently pursuing her MASc in Industrial/Organizational Psychology under Ramona’s supervision. Her current research interests include gender-based mistreatment, organizational justice, and silence/voice.
Current and recent undergraduate thesis students
Claire Bolton
Claire is an undergraduate student completing her BA in Psychology with a Research-Intensive Specialization at the University of Waterloo. Her thesis explores how leaders are perceived and the ways gender bias can shape interpretations of their behaviour. She is interested in pursuing graduate programs in Industrial Organizational Psychology.
Kerianne Kelly
Kerianne is an undergraduate student working toward completing her BSc with a major in Psychology and a minor in Biology. Her thesis focuses on how employees’ perceptions of organizational injustice relate to their ability to be self-compassionate or self-critical in the workplace. Kerianne is interested in pursuing graduate studies in psychology following the completion of her degree.
Jessica Cho
Jessica is an undergraduate student working towards completing her BA in Psychology at the University of Waterloo. Her thesis focuses on managerial apologies and how they shape employee feelings and forgiveness following workplace injustice. She is interested in pursuing graduate programs in Clinical Psychology.
Alison Stephens
Alison Stephens (2025)
Alison completed her Honours BA in Psychology at the University of Waterloo. Her undergraduate honours thesis investigated whether employees' fairness perceptions are related to their support for diversity initiatives in their organization. She is currently pursuing a MASc in Industrial/Organizational Psychology under the supervision of Dr. Bobocel.
Olha Mendelenko (2021)
Olha completed her B.A. (hons.) in Criminal Justice and Law with a minor in Psychology at Carleton University, followed by a Psychology Make-Up Program at the University of Waterloo. As part of the Make-Up program, Olha completed a Psychology Honors Thesis under the supervision of Dr. Ramona Bobocel, where she examined the benefits of leader apology following an interpersonal justice violation. Olha joined the IO MASc program in 2022 working with Ramona and was awarded SSHRC-GSM for her proposal to examine the effects and possible gender differences of bottom-up mistreatment on mid-level managers.