School of Labor and Employment Relations

Faculty and Staff Milestones 2025

Check out LER’s 2025 milestones below!

We’re proud to highlight the outstanding accomplishments and publications of our faculty, PhD students, staff, and MHRIR students this year.

Faculty Milestones

Fritz Drasgow, Dan Newman, and Simon Restubog were selected on Elsevier’s 2025 World’s Top 2% Scientists List, a widely-recognized benchmark for evaluating global research impact

Johnnie Kallas

Teresa Cardador and her co-authors were selected as the “Editor’s Choice” for the February 2025 Journal of Applied Psychology issue. Their article is titled “The Identity Conflict Process: Appraisal Theory as an Integrative Framework for Understanding Identity Conflict at Work,” and will also be featured with several other articles in the “Editor’s Choice Newsletter, distributed widely by the APA.

Simon Restubog 

  • Won the 2025 Faculty Teaching Excellence Award.
  • Selected as Fellow of the President’s Executive Leadership Program (PELP)
  • Aquino, K., Thau, S., Graso, M., Clark, C., Lagios, C., Restubog, S. L. D., & Tianyujun, L. (in press). The reputational consequences of victim signaling. Personality & Individual Differences.
  • Deen, C., Kiewitz, C., Kim, J., Restubog, S. L. D., Chih, Y. Y., & Tang, R. L. (in press). Helicopter bosses: Development and validation of the micromanagement scale. Journal of Management.
  • Bankins, S., Weaver, A., Marrone, M., Restubog, S. L. D., & Woo, S. E. (in press). Artificial intelligence at work: A phenomenon-based interdisciplinary review and groundwork for multilevel scholarship. Information & Management.
  • Schilpzand, P., Nerona, R., Li, Y., Restubog, S. L. D., & Rofcanin, Y. (in press). Leadership in layers: An integrative review on skip-level leadership and an agenda for future research. Leadership Quarterly.

Bo Zhang

Kay Emmert has been hired as a Lecturer in the Labor Education Program, teaching labor law.

Shinjae Won will be starting a new position in the business school at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, South Korea, this Fall.

Richard Benton and YoungAh Park were named the Inaugural Dean’s Faculty Research Fellows.

Andrew Weaver was the 2025 John T. Dunlop Outstanding Scholar, awarded by LERA.

Bob Bruno

Teresa Cardador has been promoted to the rank of Full Professor.

Fritz Drasgow was named a 2024 Highly Ranked Scholar by ScholarGPS.

Leo Alexander was a recipient of the Jeanneret Award for Excellence in the Study of Individual or Group Assessment for his published paper: Nan Zhang, Mo Wang, Heng Xu, Nick Koenig, Louis Hickman, Jason Kuruzovich, Vincent Ng, Kofi Arhin, Danielle Wilson, Q. Chelsea Song, Chen Tang, Leo Alexander III, and Yesuel Kim.  (2023). Reducing subgroup differences in personnel selection through the application of machine learning. Personnel Psychology, 76, 1125-1159.

Tingting Zhang was selected as the 2025-2026 Partnerships for Evidence-based Public Policy (PEPP) Fellow.

Gus Wood gave a talk at the Illini Union Bookstore Author’s Corner on his new book: Black Warfare in Black Atlanta: Grassroots Struggles, Power, and Repression Under Gentrification

Dan Gilbert curated the Songs of Solidarity: The 1985 Farm Aid Concert exhibit at the Spurlock Museum on campus

Emily Labarbera-Twarog was quoted by the AP and USA today:  

Bob Bruno was quoted in the Chicago Tribune, Courthousenews.com, the Financial Times, WGN

Michael Leroy

YoungAh Park and her co-authors have new publications:

  • Liang, Y., & Park, Y. (in press). A spectrum of bystander actions: Latent profile analysis of sexual harassment intervention behavior at work. Journal of Applied Psychology.
  • Liang, Y., Kim, S.H., Park, Y., & Kim, S. (2025). Shelters from the storm: A daily investigation of customer sexual harassment and organizational resources as moderators. Journal of Managerial Psychology. Online first publication. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMP-05-2024-0305
  • Wanberg, C., Park, Y., & Ren, S. L. (2024). Introversion and trait-incongruent work demands: Episodic misfit at work. Personnel Psychology. Online first publication. https://doi.org/10.1111/peps.12668

PMCR:  

 

Staff Milestones

  • Congratulations to Dr. Brian Neighbors, who successfully defended his PhD in Educational Policy, Organization, and Leadership from the University of Illinois, College of Education. He is currently teaching our new, popular undergraduate course, LER 199: Introduction to HR.
  • Ashley Lewsader joined the main office as an Office Support Specialist.
  • Cory Hatfield received a digital badge for completing Fostering a Culture of Respect training.
  • Nell Madigan was promoted to Senior Associate Dean, External Relations and Operations.
  • Wyatt Martin was promoted to Senior Director of Budget and Resource Planning.
  • Brian Neighbors is presenting at the Chicago Southland Educator Consortium Conference at Governors State University this month, highlighting his dissertation research on rural school district hiring processes.
  • Brian Neighbors was recognized at one of the top five career influencers across campus by the Career Services Council
  • Welcome to Maddie Wilson, our new Assistant Director of Student Recruitment and Strategic Outreach, and welcome back to Jason Boys, who has joined us as Director, Graduate Online Programs.
  • We have two new postdoctoral research fellows in LEP/PMCR – Lauren Taylor and Emily Zarate.
  • Congratulations to Marie Buckhanon from Hazmat; her family welcomed a new daughter, Malia
  • Becky Barker received the Graduate College Excellence in Student Contact Award

Ph.D. Notes/Milestones

  • Patricia Tabarani, Simon Restubog, Kohyar Kiazad, Constantin Lagios, Pauline Schilpzand & Sky (Lintao) Wang have been awarded the 2025 Best International Paper Award for the upcoming Society of Industrial/Organizational Psychology Conference to be held in Denver, Colorado in April 2025. Their submission was titled, “Heartsick for Home: An Integrative Review of Home Sickness and an Agenda for Future Research”
  • Constantin Lagios, Simon Restubog, Pauline Schilpzand, Kohyar Kiazad, & Karl Aquino’s paper have been featured as Top-rated Poster at the All-Conference Reception for the upcoming Society of Industrial/Organizational Psychology Conference to be held in Denver, Colorado in April 2025. Their submission was titled, “Displaced Aggression: A Review of the Literature and Roadmap for Future Research”
  • Grisel Lopez-Alvarez has accepted a tenure track position at North Central College starting in Fall 2025. She will be in the School of Business & Entrepreneurship in the department of Management and Marketing.
  • Yeaseul Hur passed her Preliminary Exam on December 10, 2024. Her committee was Eunmi Mun, Chair, Andrew Weaver, Christine ly and Russell Weinstein.
  • Yonjin Suh successfully defended her Dissertation and passed her Final Examination on November 11, 2024. Her Committee was Amit Kramer, Chair, Joseph Mahoney, YoungAh Park and Shinjae Won.
  • Yangyi Yu married Bonian Pan in May.
  • Kwon Hee Han married Youngsir Rha in Seoul in May.
  • Nanhee Kim passed her Area of Specialization exam. Her committee was YoungAh Park (Chair), Amit Kramer andBo Zhang
  • Nanhee Kim also has been awarded the Pola and Harry Triandis LER PhD Scholarship for $1000, for summer 2025; she was also selected for the Tim Judge Fellowship for summer 2025.
  • Kwon Hee Han successfully passed his Preliminary Exam in May.  His committee was Richard Benton (Chair), Ryan Lamare, Jiwook Jung and Timothy Werner.
  • Yangyi Yu has passed her Area of Specialization Exam; her committee was Bo Zhang (Chair), Dan Newman and YoungAh Park.
  • Suyeon Kang successfully deposited her dissertation, entitled ‘How do firms recognize and present their human capital?: investigation of HR executive appointment and human capital disclosures’ in May
  • Grisel Lopez-Alvarez successfully deposited her dissertation, entitled ‘Between two worlds: An examination of Latina daughters’ experiences of work-daughter conflict and enrichment, and the implications for career and family’ in April
  • Yon Jin Suh successfully deposited her dissertation, entitled ‘Alignment matters? The interactive effects of women in top management, board of directors, and middle management on the adoption and implementation of work-life support policies’ in May
  • Suyeon Kang passed her Doctoral Final Exam Defense in April; her committee was Jiwook Jung (Co-Chair), Andrew Weaver (Co-Chair), Shinjae Won and Yusaku Takeda.
  • Yonjin Suh accepted a job as an Assistant Professor in the Division of Management, Marketing, & Entrepreneurship in the College of Business at Governors State University for Fall 2025.
  • Grisel Lopez-Alvarez accepted a job as an Assistant Professor in the School of Business and Entrepreneurship at North Central College for Fall 2025.
  • Chien-Hao Chen passed his Area of Specialization Exam; his committee was Jiwook Jung, Chair, Richard Benton and Matt Kraatz.
  • Kwon Hee Han, Yeaseul Hur, Griselle Lopez-Alvarez were named to the List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent by Their Students, Fall 2024.
  • Welcome to Ya-Ting Liu and Jun Hwangbo, our new fall doctoral students.
  • Megan Bergman passed her second-year paper requirement; her paper’s title is “Corporate Responses to Board Diversity Disclosure Law: A Study of Illinois Firms”
  • Yeaseul Hur and her husband, Jay Oh, welcomed their son, Aiden Youngdo Oh.
  • Suyeon Kang started a post-doc position with Korea University in Seoul.

Student Milestones

  • We sent two teams to Purdue for the annual HR Case Competition, and they represented us well. Thank you to Ashton Hubert, David Messina, and Katherine Zhang who competed in the Black Division against Minnesota, TAMU, OSU, Purdue and Penn State. Thank you also to Katie Ambrosino, Eva Fischer, Jorge Ramirez, and Emmy Soder who competed in the Gold Division against BYU, Purdue, Utah State, and Wisconsin. Both teams worked hard to present thoughtful solutions to a problem about increasing benefits usage by line workers at Eaton.
  • Congratulations to Team Two, who won second place in the Gold Division! Additionally, Katie Ambrosino won the prize for best Q&A in the division.
  • Anthony Gonzalez represented LER at The National Academy of Human Resources Annual Gala.

 

Teachers Ranked Excellent

Find the list of Teachers Ranked Excellent here.

Faculty Publications

Simon Restubog

  • Restubog, S. L. D., Li, Y., Schilpzand, P., He, Y., & Nerona, R. (in press). Leading with pride: An interdisciplinary review on LGBTIQ+ leadership and an agenda for future research. Leadership Quarterly.
  • Aquino, K., Thau, S., Graso, M., Clark, C., Lagios, C., Restubog, S. L. D., & Tianyujun, L. (in press). The reputational consequences of victim signaling. Personality & Individual Differences.
  • Deen, C., Kiewitz, C., Kim, J., Restubog, S. L. D., Chih, Y. Y., & Tang, R. L. (in press). Helicopter bosses: Development and validation of the micromanagement scale. Journal of Management.
  • Bankins, S., Weaver, A., Marrone, M., Restubog, S. L. D., & Woo, S. E. (in press). Artificial intelligence at work: A phenomenon-based interdisciplinary review and groundwork for multilevel scholarship. Information & Management.
  • Schilpzand, P., Nerona, R., Li, Y., Restubog, S. L. D., & Rofcanin, Y. (in press). Leadership in layers: An integrative review on skip-level leadership and an agenda for future research. Leadership Quarterly.
  • His LER PhD students have new publications:
      • Lagios, C., Tabarani, P., Restubog, S. L. D., & Wang, L. (Sky). (in press). From dehumanization to action: Reconciling social exchange and displaced aggression through subjective expective utility theory. In Coyle-Shapiro, J., Cropanzano, R., & Diehl, M. (Ed.) Research Handbook on Social Exchange Theory.
      • Tabarani, P., Restubog, S. L. D., Kiazad, K., Lagios, C., Schilpzand, P., & Wang, L. (Sky). (in press). Heartsick for home: An integrative review of employee homesickness and an agenda for future research. Group & Organization Management.
  • Simon Restubog and his PhD student Constantin Lagios were invited as a keynote panel member and participant, respectively, at the 2025 Conference titled, “The Family Tightrope – Balancing Family and Merit” sponsored by the Columbia Business School Family Enterprise Program and held at Columbia University. They presented research findings from their published paper titled, “Family first: An integrative review conceptual review of nepotism in organizations”.
  • Simon Restubog and his graduate students in the Psychology Department (Fan Xuan) and LER (Constantin) published the following:
    • Kiazad, K., Chen, F. X., & Restubog, S. L. D. (in press). Workplace bullshitting: A multidimensional analysis of motives. Group & Organization Management.
    • Lagios, C., Restubog, S. L. D., Schilpzand, P., Kiazad, K., & Aquino, K. (in press). Disrupting the chain of displaced aggression: A Review and agenda for future research. Journal of Organizational Behavior.
    • Lagios, C., Restubog, S. L. D., Schilpzand, P., Lagios, N., & Caesens, G. (in press). Seeing the good in the bad: A self-affirmation model of organizational dehumanization. Journal of Applied Psychology.

Haylee Min had an article published in Journal of Business Psychology (JBP) which received JBPs Editor’s Commendation for 2024 and another article recognized as a top cited article in Personnel Psychology among the articles published between 1/1/2023-12/31/2023:

  • Anantharaman, A.*, Grandey, A., Min, H., Surendran, V. (2024). Linking organizational political diversity with satisfaction and performance: The implications of presidential elections. Journal of Business and Psychology.
  • Sun, T., Guo, F., Min, M., & Zhang, B. (2023). Practical machine learning algorithms for selection with multiple-outcome maximization and adverse impact examination: A use case study. Personnel Psychology — as part of a larger thematic article for the Special Issue on Applying Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence to Personnel Selection:
    • Koenig, N., Tonidandel, S., Thompson, I., Albritton, B., Koohifar, F., Yankov, G., Speer, A., Hardy, J., Gibson, C., Frost, C., Liu, M., McNeney, D., Capman, J. F., Lowery, S. B., Kitching, M., Nimbkar, A., Boyce, A. S., Sun, T., Guo, F., Min, H., Zhang, B., Lebanoff, L., & Newton, C. (2023). Improving Measurement and Prediction in Personnel Selection through the Application of Machine Learning. Personnel Psychology.

YoungAh Park

  • Liang, Y., & Park, Y. (in press). A spectrum of bystander actions: Latent profile analysis of sexual harassment intervention behavior at work. Journal of Applied Psychology.
  • Liang, Y., Kim, S.H., Park, Y., & Kim, S. (2025). Shelters from the storm: A daily investigation of customer sexual harassment and organizational resources as moderators. Journal of Managerial Psychology. Online first publication. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMP-05-2024-0305
  • Wanberg, C., Park, Y., & Ren, S. L. (2024). Introversion and trait-incongruent work demands: Episodic misfit at work. Personnel Psychology. Online first publication. https://doi.org/10.1111/peps.12668
  • Three empirical papers co-authored by Young-Ah Park, along with LER current and former students–Sohee, Yijue, and Sooyeol, have been accepted for publication or recently published.
    • Kim, S. H., Park, Y., & Liang, Y. (in press). Observers’ gender and behavioral responses to workplace sexual harassment via empathy: The moderating role of organizational intolerance, Journal of Applied Psychology.
    • Liang, Y., & Park, Y. (2025). A spectrum of bystander actions: Latent profile analysis of sexual harassment intervention behavior at work. Journal of Applied Psychology. Online first publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0001280
    • Liang, Y., Kim, S. H., Park, Y., & Kim, S. (2025). Shelters from the storm: A daily investigation of customer sexual harassment and organizational resources as moderators. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 40 (4), 369-384.

Dan Gilbert published an op-ed in the Boston Herald about workers at Fenway.

School of Labor and Employment Relations

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