First-Year Doctoral Students

Benjamin Elman
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Benjamin, a current 1st year Doctoral student in the Applied Organizational Psychology program at Hofstra University, was born in Hertfordshire, England, UK. Growing up on a small farm, Benjamin developed a love for animals, hearty walks, and a consistently unheard of local soccer club, Watford FC (Not in EPL).

Graduating with a Business Administration B.A, from Middlesex Uni (London, UK), and a MSc in I/O Psychology from Baruch College (New York, USA) Benjamin spent 6 years backpacking around the world and working in technology sales positions in London, Australia, and finally New York, before entering the Hofstra Doctoral program.

Benjamin's interests of research include: cross-cultural studies between India and USA; and how social networking sites influence and bias the selection process of recruitment

Nawal Es-Sabahi, M.A.
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Nawal received her B.A and M.A in psychology from Ecole de Psychologues Praticiens (EPP) in Paris, France. Assistant Psychologist Research Intern at CNRS-INSERM in her native country of France where she dealt with the psychological impact of legal, cultural and family conflicts surrounding child placement, she was first introduced to the field of conflict resolution/intervention via counseling. Her subsequent interest in mediation grew from family into business as she began to make her transition into human resources as she once again recognized the need for conflict resolution skills, when dealing with employee-management relationships. After taking several mediation and arbitration trainings to enhance her skills as a neutral, Nawal joined the American Board of Neutrals Association (ABNA) and has been a very active member on several committees. She also loves cooking, particularly French and Moroccan cuisine. Besides her native tongue of French, she is fluent in Spanish, Moroccan and obviously English.

Ann Higgs
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Ann hails from upstate New York, where she currently lives in Poughkeepsie, NY. She presently teaches Introductory Psychology and Industrial Psychology at Marist College. She received her B.A. in Psychology from Siena College and her M.S. in Industrial and Organizational Psychology from Baruch College. Her career experience has been in the fields of HR/recruiting and academia. Her research areas of interest are executive coaching and selection, selection procedures, performance management, multiple source feedback, and leadership development.

Andrew Martins, M.S.
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While receiving his B.A. in Psychology with a Minor in Business Administration from St. John's University Andrew discovered Industrial Organization Psychology by a mere chance, when it was briefly mentioned in a management summer course. He then spent the next two years obtaining his Master's in I/O from Baruch College of the City University of New York. Prior to joining the Hofstra community his research of interest has been on leader's regulatory focus and affects and their outcomes; which was presented at 25th annual SIOP convention in Atlanta, Georgia 2010. His current interests are in the areas of training and development and identifying non-traditional high potentials. When Andrew isn't entrenched in an academic journal he is either enjoying the fresh air of the outdoors or on a quest to find the next hole-in-the-wall eatery. Andrew's personal interests include anything that sparks his interest, from economics to well-written TV shows and movies.

Rehana Meghani, B.A. Psychology, M.A. Psychology
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Born in Calgary, Alberta and raised in Kampala, Uganda, Rehana Meghani has had a diverse life to say the least. She received a B.A. in Psychology from Grant MacEwan University in Edmonton, Canada. During this time, she volunteered as a research assistant at Alberta Hospital in the Forensic Unit, which resulted in a publication of a journal article in the Journal of Offender Rehabilitation. Upon graduation, she decided that she not only wanted to further her education but to also experience life in a big city. She moved to New York and received a M.A. in Psychology from the New School for Social Research. Rehana's research interests include selection, training, performance appraisal, and motivation. She is currently a prerequisite PhD student who will be starting the doctoral program in September of 2011. Rehana has a variety of hobbies which include: playing video games, playing the drums, bikram yoga, dancing, photography, cooking, and golf.

Christopher Salute, M.B.A.
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Christopher Salute founded, chaired, or was the president of over 22 student clubs and organizations while receiving his BA in Psychology and Minors in Business, Writing and Communications from Siena College. He then decided to slack off some more and received his MBA from Molloy College in Management. He has received the top honors for student leadership that both Siena and Molloy College offer, all the while working for companies such as Clearchannel Broadcasting and Yahoo! Inc. But, with dreams to become a full time professor, he enrolled at Hofstra's Applied Organizational Psychology PhD program in 2011. He is currently an adjunct professor, e-commerce consultant, and works in human resources at a mid-sized retail distribution company. Salute chose Hofstra because of the Applied Organizational Psychology PhD's extraordinary reputation and its flexibility, allowing him to teach and work while receiving his degree. In 5 years, he looks forward to teaching, full time, while expanding his consulting firm and writing a textbook.

Benjamin Wood, M.A. in Psychology
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Ben grew up in La Crescenta, CA and is the typical Southern California Kid. Loves sunny weather, is a beach fanatic and would live outside in New York City if he could only convince the weather to cooperate with him! Ben received his Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Azusa Pacific University in Psychology all while playing Collegiate Basketball, Interning at Loma Linda Children's Hospital as a child life specialist and working at Pacific Clinics as a social worker. Once he completed his BA he decided to move to Boston, MA to work as a Residential Specialist at the Franciscan Children's Hospital. Ben was bent on pursuing his clinical career through internships and related clinical work and then decided to move back to the west coast and get his M.S. in clinical psychology at California State University of Fullerton. Halfway through however Ben realized that though Psychology is where his passion and interest laid it was not in clinical psychology. Halfway through his masters degree Ben decided to change his degree to Master of Arts in Psychology and pursue Industrial/Organizational Psychology. After doing so he partnered up with Dr. Ron Riggio at the Kravitz Institute of Leadership at Claremont McKenna college and pursued research in Nepotism and different organizational issues. Ben ended up doing his masters thesis with Dr. Riggio as a a co-chair on Attitudes Towards Business Organizations in which he developed and tested a Tolerance for Nepotism Scale. Once he completed his MA degree he enrolled at Hofstra Universities Applied Organizational Psychology Program where he hopes to do research in leadership, personnel selection and motivation. Ben hopes to someday integrate his love for sports and psychology and be a top level executive manager for a professional or collegiate sports team.

Julie Zide, M.A.
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Julie received her B.A. in Psychology and minored in Nutrition at New York University, where she graduated Summa Cum Laude and was elected into Phi Beta Kappa.  She was also given the Dean’s Award for Academic Excellence in Social Sciences, the highest honor at graduation.  During her junior year, Julie participated in the psychology honors research program and conducted her own research in cognitive psychology.  She found the research process to be challenging yet rewarding and fulfilling, and realized she wanted to pursue the academic career path.  In that same year, she took Industrial/Organizational Psychology as an advanced elective, and was fascinated by how it combined her interests in research and helping people.  Julie then went on to receive her M.A. in I/O Psychology at NYU, where she became an M.A. scholar and worked as a teaching assistant in statistics.  She also did various internships in human resources and consulting.  Julie’s Masters thesis was on emotional intelligence in medical organizations.  This, combined with previous experience working with great female leaders, has enriched her desire to study effective leadership behaviors.  She is also interested in team dynamics and biases in selection.  In her spare time, Julie enjoys running, kickboxing, dancing, vintage shopping, independent films, and playing with her niece and nephew.