Profile picture for Juan Alzate Vanegas M.S.

Contact Information

Psychology Building
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
603 E Daniel St, Champaign, IL 61820
Room 236
juanma3@illinois.edu

Office Hours

By appointment only.

Research Areas

Industrial-Organizational
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Biography

Juan is a proud union member and 6th year Ph.D. candidate in Industrial-Organizational Psychology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Moreover, Juan currently works as Industrial-Organizational Psychologist Intern at the Organizational Insights (OI) Team for Enterprise Research (ER) at State Farm Corporate Headquarters in Bloomington, IL.

Research Interests

  • Research and statistical methods, psychometrics, item response theory, computational approaches to psychological research (e.g., Big Data, machine learning, neural networks, natural language processing, social signal processing, simulations), meta-analyses, structural equation modeling.
  • Technological implications for the workplace, electronic monitoring, social media assessment, computerized adaptive testing, virtual teams, ergonomics and human factors.
  • Individual differences, personality theory, intelligence, theories of cultural influence.
  • Self-efficacy, stress, motivational interventions, job satisfaction, employee attitudes, occupational commitment, counterproductive work behavior, turnover.
  • Leadership styles and effectiveness, leadership emergence, leadership-member exchange.
  • Performance measurement, appraisals, 360-degree feedback systems, job analyses, selection assessment and placement.

Research Description

Juan's research under advisor Fritz Drasgow focuses broadly on developing psychological measurements in the workplace, and applying machine learning methods in the context of personnel selection and employee retention.

Education

  • University of Illinois - Ph.D. in Industrial-organizational psychology (August 2018 – present)
  • University of Illinois - M.S. in Applied Statistics (planned: Spring 2024)
  • University of Illinois - M.S. in Psychology (August 2018 – August 2020)
  • University of Central Florida - B.S. in Psychology with Statistics and Computer Science minors (August 2015 – August 2018)

Grants

  • $1,508 Graduate College Distinguished Fellowship (Summer 2022)

  • Graduate College Distinguished Fellowship (Fall 2018 – Fall 2021)

Courses Taught

  • PSYC 250 - Industrial organizational psychology (Summer 2022, Spring 2023)
  • PSYC 207 - Stereotypes and discrimination (Fall 2022)
  • PSYC 245 - Psychology of personality (Fall 2022)
  • PSYC 455 - Organizational psychology (Spring 2022)
  • PSYC 144 - Stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination (Spring 2022)
  • PSYC 350 - Personality lab (Fall 2021)

Additional Campus Affiliations

  • Graduate Employees Organization (GEO)
  • Psychology Department Diversity Committee

External Links

Linktree

WORK EXPERIENCE

Research intern: Organizational Insights Team, State Farm (Enterprise Research), Bloomington, IL.

  • Presented quantitative insights about insurance claims severity and customer satisfaction for business leaders to make strategic decisions.
  • Developed up-to-date educational materials for machine learning methods to improve research quality and efficiency.
  • Designed an animated visualization of insights in talent acquisition for Hack Day 2023.

Tutor: University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL.

  • Master’s of Psychological Science (MSPS), under Dr. Caroline Tancredy (Spring 2020)
  • Statistical methods I and II, under professor Frieder Köhn (Spring 2019 – Fall 2022)

Ad hoc reviewer: Military Psychology.

  • Reviewed 10 manuscripts considered for publication.

PRESENTATIONS

  1. Alzate Vanegas, J.M. & Hirvo, A. (June 2023). Employee performance projections. Presentation for State Farm Enterprise Research Hack Day 2023, Bloomington, IL.
  2. Alzate Vanegas, J.M. (May 2023). A network analysis of The Journal of Applied Psychology. Final project for Statistical Learning in Behavioral Sciences, Urbana, IL.
  3. Alzate Vanegas, J.M. (April 2022). Turnover in the US Marines: Comparison of predictive methods. Presentation at the 2022 SIOP Annual Conference, Seattle, WA.
  4. Alzate Vanegas, J.M. (April 2019). Inferring personality from social media. Presentation at the SPO Brown Bag, Urbana-Champaign, IL.
  5. Alzate Vanegas, J.M., Hurst, M.T., & Perez, I. (April 2018). Psychometric properties of a working memory span task. Poster presentation at the annual Southeastern Human Factors Applied Research Conference, Clemson, SC.
  6. Alzate Vanegas, J.M., Hurst, M.T., & Perez, I. (March 2018). Psychometric properties of a working memory span task. Poster presentation at the annual Showcase of Undergraduate Research Excellence, Orlando, FL.
  7. Alzate Vanegas, J.M., Scott, D., Tilus, N., & Thompson, G. (April, 2017). Test anxiety and native language. Virtual poster session for Advanced Research Methods in Psychology, Orlando, FL.
  8. Louie, J. F., Alzate Vanegas, J.M., & Mouloua, M. (April, 2017). Does the type of distraction matter? Working memory capacity as a predictor of distracted driving. Poster presentation at the 1st annual Southeastern Human Factors Applied Research Conference, Raleigh, NC.
  9. Alzate Vanegas, J.M. (April, 2016). Leadership and personality theory: an introduction. Presentation at the last meeting of the year for the Transportation Research Group, Orlando, FL.

Highlighted Publications

  1. Alzate Vanegas, J.M., Drasgow, F., Briley, D.A., & Vogiatzis, C. (n.d.). Expressions of personality and job attitudes on Twitter. [Doctoral dissertation, University of Illinois]. Manuscript in preparation.
  2. Alzate Vanegas, J.M., Drasgow, F., & Wine, W. (2022). Predictions of attrition among U.S. Marine Corps: Comparison of four predictive methods. Military Psychology, 2(34), 147-166. doi: 10.1080/08995605.2021.1978754

Recent Publications

Alzate Vanegas, J.M., Drasgow, F., & Wine, W. (2022). Predictions of attrition among U.S. Marine Corps: Comparison of four predictive methods. Military Psychology, 2(34), 147-166. doi: 10.1080/08995605.2021.1978754