About the Ph.D. Program

program history

The Ph.D. program in I-O psychology at Baruch College and the Graduate Center was founded in 1982 under the leadership of Joel Lefkowitz. Most of the training and coursework takes place at Baruch College’s William and Anita Newman Vertical Campus – or VC. The VC is a state of the art building located in the Gramercy Park neighborhood of Manhattan. The Graduate Center is located in nearby Midtown Manhattan, across the street from the Empire State Building.

Both Baruch College and the Graduate Center are part of the City University of New York (CUNY). CUNY is one of the largest university systems in the country, with approximately 275,000 undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in degree programs across CUNY’s 25 campuses. Baruch College is ranked among the region's and nation's top colleges by U.S. News & World Report, Forbes, and Princeton Review. Baruch College also offers a terminal master’s degree in I-O psychology, an executive master’s degree program in I-O psychology, and a BBA in I-O psychology.

The program has long attracted talented students and faculty. The current faculty is widely recognized for its accomplishment and contributions to the field of I-O psychology. The faculty has been awarded some of the top honors in I-O psychology including SIOP’s M. Scott Myers Award for Applied Research in the Workplace; SIOP’s Adverse Impact Reduction Research Initiative and Action Grant; SIOPs Bray-Howard Research Grant; Academy of Management’s Sage Award for Scholarly Contributions to Gender and Diversity; the International Personnel Assessment Council’s Innovation in Assessment Award; and SIOP’s Small Grants Awards. Over the history of the program, the faculty has included: Joel Lefkowitz, Walter Reichman, Ed Hollander, Donna Thompson, Jeanette Cleveland, Judi Komaki, Rodger Millsap, Karen Lyness, Kristen Shockley, Loren Naidoo, Erin Eatough, Logan Watts, and Julie Dinh.

Program Traditions

New Student Orientation: To start each year, we hold a full day orientation and onboarding process for the incoming students. The day includes an all-program lunch and introduction to the I-O community at Baruch.

Holiday Party: Each December, we hold a holiday party for students, faculty, and significant others to celebrate the end of the fall semester and the holiday season. This is organized by the 2nd year cohort.

Peer Mentoring Program: The mentoring program helps incoming students to transition into graduate life. Students are voluntarily paired with more senior students who share their backgrounds and interests. The mentoring program is organized by students in years 2-5 who are part of the Student Mentoring Committee.

SIOP Alumni Reception: At the SIOP annual conference, we hold a reception for the alumni, current students, and faculty of our Ph.D. and M.S. programs.

SIOP 5k fun run: Students and faculty join together to form several teams running in SIOP’s Frank Landy 5K fun run at the annual conference.

End of the year party: At the end of each academic year, the 2nd year students organize a party for the entire program where we celebrate all of the student and faculty accomplishments for the year.

Weekly Brownbag Meetings: Each week during the semester, we hold program Brownbag meetings. During these meetings, students, faculty, and others present on research or professional issues. Click here to view our list of topics and presenters for the 2018-2019 academic year.

Diversity is one of the core values of our program. This value is reflected in the faculty and student research that spans cultural diversity, demographic diversity, gender diversity, immigration, and LGBTQ issues in the workplace. Our faculty is widely recognized for its contributions to promoting diversity in the workplace through research and practice. These efforts have been acknowledged by the major professional associations of our field:

• SIOP with faculty winning the M. Scott Myers Award for Applied Research in the Workplace, the Bray and Howard Research Grant, and the Adverse Impact Reduction Research Initiative and Action Grant.

• Academy of Management with faculty winning the Sage Award for Scholarly Contributions to Gender and Diversity.

• International Personnel Assessment Council with faculty winning the Innovation in Assessment Award.

Diversity is also reflected in the composition of our doctoral student body. Our students come from a variety of backgrounds and from all over the globe. We collectively work to create an inclusive and supportive environment for all of the members of our community.

Baruch College and the Graduate Center have a long history of fostering a culture of diversity and inclusion. In fact, the City University of New York (CUNY) has a legislatively mandated mission (New York state education law, Article 125, Section 6201) to be “of vital importance as a vehicle for the upward mobility of the disadvantaged in the City of New York … [to] remain responsive to the needs of its urban setting … [while ensuring] equal access and opportunity” to students, faculty and staff “from all ethnic and racial groups” and without regard to gender. The Graduate Center is home to more than 30 research centers and institutes, many of which are devoted to addressing through their research and events issues affecting diverse and underrepresented populations. Inside Higher Ed, listed the Graduate Center as one of the top ten institutions for awarding doctoral degrees to members of unrepresented minority groups. As of 2017, the Graduate Center doctoral student population in the social sciences was 61.70% European (including Eastern European) Caucasian; 10.9% Black or African-American; 17.30% Hispanic or Latino; 7.6% Asian or Pacific Islander; 2.40% two or more races; and less than 1% American Indian Native Alaskan. Females comprise 61.60% of the doctoral student population.

For those interested in conducting research on diverse and underrepresented populations, Baruch College provides unique research opportunities. The majority of Baruch undergraduate students are immigrants or children of immigrants (168 countries represented).  Approximately 32.3% of the students at Baruch are from European Caucasian backgrounds (including Eastern European backgrounds), 10.1% are Black, 13.2% are Hispanic, 30.6% are Asian or Pacific Islander; less than 1% are American Indian or Native Alaskan and 12.3% are international students. The U.S. News Best Schools has ranked Baruch College in the top five of the most ethnically and racially diverse colleges for the past nine years. Other groups, such as Diverse magazine, the Opportunity of Equality Project, and the Chronicle for Higher Education, have placed Baruch College near the top of their lists of the most diverse colleges and colleges that promote upward social mobility.

Baruch also reflects the socioeconomic diversity of New York City. The majority of Baruch’s undergraduate students attended New York City’s public schools and many come from underserved communities with limited financial means.  For example, about 40% of Baruch undergraduate students come from families with household incomes of $25,000 or less; 67% come from families with household incomes of $50,000 or less; and 55% of students maintain full- or part-time jobs while in college. Baruch undergraduate students are often the first in their family to attend college and as of 2015, 35% of Baruch undergraduate students were the first in their family to achieve this milestone.  Baruch has been recognized as one of five institutions of nearly 1,200 colleges and universities educating low-income students.

The Industrial and Organizational (I-O) Psychology training area at Baruch College provides doctoral-level training in I-O psychology, a field that focuses on the scientific study of the workplace – including both organizations and their employees. I-O psychologists develop skills in the design, execution, and interpretation of research in psychology and to apply that research to help address human and organizational problems (SIOP, 2010).

I-O psychologists conduct research and work in a wide range of organizational, consulting and academic settings. The training program in I-O psychology is designed to prepare students for a variety of career paths, by developing key skills and foundational knowledge in psychology as well as more specialized I-O topics. In addition to taking fundamental I-O courses, students can pursue their individual interests in a variety of areas, such as personnel selection and assessment, psychometrics, testing, employee engagement and motivation, performance management, talent management, work attitudes and emotions, work-life interface, diversity, executive coaching, cross-cultural issues, teams, training, leadership development, and corporate social responsibility (CSR).

Consistent with the model of I-O psychologists as both scientists and practitioners, our program places a heavy emphasis on developing students’ research and analytical skills. Research and quantitative methods are at the core of our training program. Students are actively involved in research throughout their graduate training, beginning with mentoring and involvement in faculty research, and moving toward independent research projects as students develop their skills and interests. The program fosters a collaborative culture where students and faculty work together and support one another in the pursuit of student development and research excellence.

The I-O program at Baruch College includes seven full-time psychologists (Harold Goldstein, Yochi Cohen-Charash, Charles Scherbaum, Logan Watts, Albert Zhou, Wei Wang, and Kristin Sommer); four part-time psychologists (Joel Lefkowitz, Karen Lyness, Lise Saari, and Rob Silzer) who contribute to the program and doctoral student development.

The major strength and pride of our program is our people. Our students, alumni, and faculty have achieved some of the highest levels of professional distinction in I-O psychology.

• Our students are regularly authors on posters and papers at national conferences, such as the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Academy of Management, Association for Psychological Science and American Psychological Association conferences, as well as regional conferences, such as Eastern Psychological Association conference. Many students are authors on published articles and book chapters by the time they complete the program. 

• Our alumni hold positions in academia (e.g., Southern New Hampshire University, Sacred Heart University), Fortune 500 organizations (e.g., Facebook, Pepsi, J P Morgan Chase, Merck, Goldman Sachs, Chevron, Morgan Stanley, Amazon, Johnson & Johnson), government (e.g., Office of Personnel Management; Federal Bank of New York), and consulting firms (e.g., Korn Ferry, BTS, Mercer-Sirota, Aon).

• The program has a strong network of alumni located in New York, the rest of the United States and internationally who contribute to our program and student development.

• Our faculty regularly publishes in top I-O psychology and related journals, including the Journal of Business and Psychology, Journal of Applied Social Psychology, Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Management, Human Relations, The Industrial and Organizational Psychologist: Perspectives on Science and Practice,  Journal of Applied Psychology, Personnel Psychology, Organizational Research Methods, Journal of Vocational Behavior, Leadership Quarterly.

• Our faculty has a track record of securing external research grants from funders such as the National Science Foundation, Society for Human Resource Management Foundation, and the Graduate Management Admissions Council.

• Our faculty and students have won major awards from the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (M. Scott Myers Award for Applied Research in the Workplace; Distinguished Professional Contributions Award; SIOP Small Grants Award, Adverse Impact Reduction Research Initiative and Action Grant, Leslie W. Joyce and Paul W. Thayer Graduate Fellowship in I-O Psychology, and John C. Flanagan Award for Best Student Contribution at SIOP) and the Academy of Management (Sage Award for Scholarly Contributions to Gender and Diversity).

• Our faculty has been elected to fellow status in the American Psychological Association, Association for Psychological Science, Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, and Society of Consulting Psychology.

• Our faculty is currently or has been on the editorial boards of top I-O journals including the Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Business and Psychology, Personnel Psychology, Journal of Vocational Behavior, Emotion Review, Academy of Management Journal, and Industrial /Organizational Psychology Journal: Perspectives on Science and Practice.

• Our alumni and faculty are actively involved as officers in professional organizations, such the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology and the Metropolitan New York Association for Applied Psychology.

Department of Psychology; Baruch College
55 Lexington Avenue, VC 8-215
New York, NY, 10010

Ideally situated in the beautiful Gramercy Park neighborhood of Manhattan, Baruch College is within walking distance of many iconic locations, including The Empire State and Flatiron Buildings, as well as hundreds of restaurants and shopping destinations.

Billed as the top financial center of the world, New York City offers immense cultural and employment opportunities for our students. Baruch College is the only comprehensive I-O psychology program located in New York City.

New York City has one of the greatest concentration of I-O psychologists in the United States. Our students are able to build large professional networks with our alumni and other I-O and HR professionals in our field while they are in the program. While completing their dissertations, students have the option of pursuing internships at Fortune 500 corporations (e.g., J.P Morgan Chase, IBM, Pepsi, Citi) and the major consulting firms (e.g., Aon, Mercer). These internships prepare them for both academic and applied jobs.

Our Manhattan location allows the program to host speakers from around the world and from global companies based in the New York City area. Additionally, students can participate in local professional organizations such as METRO which is one of the oldest I-O psychology associations in the United States.

Living in New York City affords the opportunity to explore world-class cultural institutions, art, music, theater, and international cuisines. Simultaneously, it is within a short commute to the mountains of upstate New York and the beaches of the Hamptons and the Jersey Shore.