The DevelopMENTOR Lab is a group of undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral researchers working to understand how to effectively develop others through advice, feedback, coaching, and mentorship. Mentorship and coaching are vital to helping individuals in their career development as it provides critical advice and feedback to help people learn and grow. And yet, individuals often receive little training and guidance on how o engage in these activities. We therefore hope to gain insights as to what makes for effective mentorship and coaching by working on a variety of research projects including: how feedback is given to medical students, an investigation of effective job coaching methods, and how mentorship can develop others.

We host a writing workshop every other week during the academic year where members are encouraged to bring academic writing to have workshopped in a collaborative research setting. Academic writing is challenging and can sometimes be ambiguous. The writing workshop aims to provide a safe space where writing at all stages can be shared with the group to be constructively shaped and critiqued.

If you are interested in participating in research or the writing workshop, please reach out to Kelly Harrington at kharrington@hbs.edu. 

LAB MEMBERS

Nicole Abi-Esber
PhD Student

​Nicole Abi-Esber is a 4th year doctoral candidate in Organizational Behavior at Harvard Business School. Her research examines how to empower employees to feel psychologically safe, and speak up at work. She uses computational social science  methods, including natural language processing. ​​

Hayley Blunden
PhD Student

​Hayley Blunden is a doctoral candidate in Organizational Behavior at Harvard Business School. Hayley studies how leaders can make challenging workplace interactions more productive. In her research spanning the domains of advice, feedback, voice, and virtual work, she seeks to improve the outcomes of workplace interactions by examining them as situated, relational processes. Her research has been published in Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, and Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, and has been featured by Harvard Business Review, The Economist, CNBC, and Forbes. Prior to pursuing her graduate studies, Hayley worked in a variety of organizational contexts, holding positions in internal strategy, consulting, and finance, in organizations ranging from a small startup to a Fortune 100 firm.  Hayley earned her BA in Economics and Media Studies from The University of Virginia and an MBA from Columbia Business School.​

Daniel Brunnick
Research Assistant

Daniel is a senior at Harvard College studying Applied Mathematics and History of Science. He is interested in the technology and business sectors and studying how technology will affect organizational behavior. In his free time he enjoys watching movies, outdoor activities, and traveling with friends. After graduation Daniel is moving to Austin, Texas to work in technology consulting. ​

Nikkita Collins
Research Assistant

Nikkita is currently a graduate student at Boston University School of Medicine in the Anatomy & Neurobiology department. After graduating with an MS degree next Spring, she aspires to attend an MD/Ph.D. in a Neuroscience program to study the impact of environmental health on the brain to elucidate sustainable and effective therapeutics. She enjoys ceramics wheel throwing, being in nature, and true crime/historical documentaries. 

Hannah Eckstein
Research Assistant

Hannah is a recent graduate of Harvard College, majoring in Psychology and Philosophy. She is interested in phenomenology and how theories of self interact with cognition, self-image, and mental health. In her spare time she enjoys going to music festivals, late-night baking, painting, and cuddling with her cat, Kimchi. She looks forward to pursuing graduate school for clinical psychology this year. 

Janet Guo
Research Assistant

Janet is a recent graduate of Vanderbilt University, majoring in Human and Organizational Behavior and Medicine, Health and Society. She is interested in studying interpersonal learning and relationships, specifically as it relates to media and technology. In her spare time, she enjoys watching reality TV, walking dogs, and eating good food. She is looking forward to starting full-time at Microsoft later this year!  

Aurelia Han
Research Assistant

Aurelia is a junior at Harvard College studying Social Studies and History of Art and Architecture. She is getting ready to begin her senior thesis on the topic of the arts of resistance and recovering memories of the Cultural Revolution, analyzing both the nostalgia and trauma of this key period of Chinese history. In her spare time, she enjoys dancing ballet, biking, and playing with her dog Harley. Aurelia also helps run a popular cake company called Cades Cakes, recently featured on Netflix's "Is it Cake?" 

Kelly Harrington
Research Associate and Lab Manager

Kelly Harrington is a Research Associate for Alexandra Feldberg and Ting Zhang in the Organizational Behavior unit at Harvard Business School. She received her B.A. in Neuroscience and Behavior from Vassar College in 2014, and her Masters in Mind, Brain, and Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 2020. She is looking forward to doing research on emotions in graduate school next year! 

Brook Jiang
Research Assistant

Brook is a recent graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, majoring in International Business and Studies. She is interested in studying motivation and identity in organizations. In her spare time, she enjoys traveling, playing tennis, and baking scones.

DJ Lacy
​Research Assistant

​DJ Lacy is a senior at Harvard College studying Government and Economics. He is interested in politics and has served in a number of roles at the Institute of Politics and on the Undergraduate Council. In his free time he enjoys a wide range of outdoor activities including hiking, biking, running, and skiing. After graduation DJ will be moving to DC to work in public sector consulting.

David Levari
​Postdoctoral Researcher

​​David Levari is a postdoctoral researcher in the Negotiation, Organizations & Markets unit at Harvard Business School. He is interested in how people try to improve the performance of others, and why those efforts often go astray. He uses lab experiments, field experiments, and computational models to study this topic through a few related research questions, including why people often take over tasks when they shouldn’t, why it is hard to predict whose advice will be helpful, and how people fail to accurately perceive shifts in individual and group behavior, which makes it hard to know when or where to intervene in the first place. He received his PhD from Harvard, studying Social Psychology with Daniel Gilbert, and his B.A. from the University of Chicago. Before coming to Harvard, he was a behavioral researcher at Chicago Booth.

Andrea Liu
​Research Assistant

​Andrea is an undergraduate at Harvard College, majoring in Psychology with a minor in Computer Science. She is interested in exploring the broad realm of organizational behavior and hopes to learn more about application-focused methods for psychology research. In her spare time, she enjoys watching movies, spending time with her dogs, and trying new ice cream flavors!

Laura Weimer
​PhD Student

​​Laura is a 3rd-year doctoral student in the Management unit at Harvard Business School. She is a 19-year active-duty Army Officer, with her BS in Chemistry from the United States Military Academy at West Point and MA in Sociology from Duke University. Her research interests include leader identity development and expression, particularly for emerging leaders and non-prototypical populations.

Alumni

John Amhanesi 
Research Assistant (2021-2022)
Roger Saumure
Research Assistant (2021)