The Center for Cognitive & Brain Sciences invites you to join a professional panel on Careers Outside of Academia.
Hear from three guests who hold graduate degrees in cognitive science disciplines but work outside of academia, and learn about the paths they’ve taken to alternative careers.
Graduate students and postdocs often experience pressure to stay in academia, and they are sometimes unsure about what careers beyond academia look like. Our Center embraces all career paths for our student members, particularly the ones that can put PhD training to good use, and we find that workshops like this go a long way toward helping people find their best paths.
This panel is part of the CCBS Undergraduate Summer Institute, a program that meets over the summer for undergraduate researchers in the cognitive sciences. We hold professional training workshops, research talks, and informal discussions about life and career. For the Careers Outside of Academia event, we invite the broader cognitive science community at Ohio State to attend.
Meet the Panel:
Nathaniel Haines, Data Scientist, Aivo Health
Nathaniel Haines is a computational psychologist and data scientist with expertise in clinical and mathematical psychology. Generally, his work seeks to understand how people learn to think, feel, and act as they experience the world. To do so, he uses a combination of techniques including cognitive/computational modeling, Bayesian analysis, machine learning, reinforcement learning, and decision theory. Nathaniel's goal is to use this understanding to help develop scalable mental health treatments for cases when people’s thoughts, emotions, and behaviors become difficult to cope with, harmful, or otherwise unwanted. Examples include impulsivity- (e.g., substance use), anxiety- (e.g., intolerance of uncertainty), and chronic pain-related (e.g., negative beliefs about pain) concerns.
Nathaniel is currently working as a data scientist at Aivo Health, a healthcare start-up where they are developing a virtual clinic to personalize treatments for chronic pain. Aivo integrates theories of reinforcement learning found in psychology and neuroscience with computational modeling techniques developed in computer science, with the goal of optimizing person-level treatment decisions and quickly alleviating chronic pain.
Nathaniel received his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from The Ohio State University.
Mikey Sales, Data Analyst, Wundermann Thompson
Mikey Sales is a data analyst at Wunderman Thompson, a leading marketing consultancy company. As a member of the Cognitive Intelligence team, Mikey employs quantitative and qualitative measures to understand consumer motivations and identify marketable audiences based on psychological factors. He successfully introduced several innovative analysis techniques used in psychological research to projects for clients such as Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Walgreen’s, and the US Marine Corps.
Mikey received his Master's in Cognitive Psychology from The Ohio State University.
Leslie Drummond, Director of Research, NITE Testbed, Air Force Research Laboratory
Leslie started as a Post-Doc for the Naval Medical Research Unit - Dayton after graduating in 2012. She was made a Research Psychologist in 2013, and worked there until 2019. Leslie moved over to the Air Force Research Laboratory for a year and a half, followed by consulting work for a firm in Orlando and scientific editing while pregnant with her son last year. She started in her current position back at AFRL in November. Leslie currently serves as the Director of Research for the NITE Testbed.
Leslie received her Ph.D. in Cognitive Neuroscience from George Washington University.
Join CCBS on July 11 at 10:30 AM in Psychology Building, Room 35. This panel is a live, in-person event. Lunch will be served following the panel discussion. Email ccbs@osu.edu with any questions.
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