Katie Winkelman graduated with a BA in Communication Studies and Business Minor in 2020. She shares about her experience working on research projects below.

1) When did you start working on research with Dr. Warren and in what capacity?

I originally started working on research with Dr. Warren in my Junior year at western through volunteering on projects. That soon spiraled out to become my own independent study!

2) What are the different activities you did on each of the projects?

I coded qualitative data on the positive effects of emotional expression of leader-allies, led a quantitative analysis through R on a project about women’s productivity and burnout during Covid-19, created libraries of articles we accumulated through literature reviews and helped brainstorm different frameworks to look at different problems for a project on positive relational allyship behavior, aided in perfecting APA style tables/charts/citations across papers, and presented my research studies on allyship communication practices and inclusive leadership at conferences.

3) What skills have you developed through your research assistantship?

There are the obvious skills you learn on research projects like academic writing, citing sources, how to read a journal article really quickly, how to execute and construct different methods of analyzing data, and working with a team. But, the most valuable skill I was able to develop is my ability to critically think about complex problems and identify all of the contributing factors to a problem and then hone in on potential interventions and solutions. These research projects really challenge the WAYS in which you think and how you approach problems, as a result I’m much better equipped to assess scientific results/conclusions, and critically think about the context and implications of all information I come into contact with. These projects have really helped me create my own sense of self in how I think about and relate to the world of information around me, and have also made me so much better at communicating about social issues with folks who are new to the conversation. I also have become much more comfortable in not knowing – the more you dig into these complex problems the more you realize you don’t know – which is humbling and energizing!

4) What are your ambitions for how you want to use this research experience for your future professional goals?

I am entering into a PhD program in Management and Organizational Studies at University of Massachusetts Amherst largely because of my involvement on these projects and hope to land a professorship after graduation where I can continue to research allyship and teach students about its importance. But don’t turn away just because I’m pursuing a career in academia– these projects have also been immensely helpful in working in the professional world in consulting where I was able to pitch to and land top clients like Microsoft Azure, The Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, and private equity firms who hired me onto their teams largely because of my research skill sets. Folks love to hire people who can really dig into problems and solve them, and research equips you really well for this!