2021 HBES Elections

Welcome to the 2021 HBES elections page! Here you will find the nominees for several positions in our upcoming Executive Council elections. Click on each nominees name to read about who they are and what they plan to do if elected to our Executive Council.

Election ballots will be open for voting in February 2021. You must have an active HBES membership to vote in the election. You can join or renew here. Voting instructions will be emailed to members in early February.

Nominees for President-Elect of HBES

I have been an HBES member for nearly 20 years. These two decades have been filled with discovery, learning, and friendship. Yet, there is room to grow. To do better. To be better.

I am dedicated to making HBES a society that not only fosters intellectual excellence but is one in which we can all be proud. And, I sincerely believe that we are in a great position to see this happen, as my opponent and friend, Clark, is similarly committed.

I am an Associate Professor of Psychology at UPenn, where I direct the Human Behavior and Origins Laboratory and co-direct the Social and Behavioral Science Initiative. I received an MSc in Evolutionary Psychology from the University of Liverpool and a PhD in Biological Anthropology from Harvard University. My research investigates how biology and culture shape decisions from mate choice to cooperation to competition, often working with the Hadza of Tanzania. Currently, I serve on the HBES Executive Council where I helped institute HBES’ new roundtable seminar series. I also serve as an Associate Editor for Evolution & Human Behavior, and for Adaptive Human Behavior & Physiology. In 2017, I received the HBES Early Career Award and the Margo Wilson Award.

If elected, I plan to i) devise family-friendly policies and infrastructure to support parents and early career researchers, ii) uphold and expand, as necessary, our code of conduct, iii) create innovative ways for members to connect outside of the annual conference iv) increase diversity and inclusion of BIPOC, LGBTQ, FGLI and researchers outside of North America and Europe. Action items would include, for instance, embedding diversity and equity into conference planning, and updating our member database with opt-in diversity-relevant information for identifying members for invited talks and panels.

I’ve been attending HBES since I was a graduate student in the 1990s, and have always felt it to be my academic home. I am a biological anthropologist specializing in cross-cultural and developmental approaches to evolutionary psychology, and I have studied topics including social learning, theory of mind, and moral cognition at my field site in Ecuador and in collaboration with anthropologists, psychologists, and philosophers around the world, including many members of the society. My current research project is the Geography of Philosophy Project (https://www.geographyofphilosophy.com/), and I am the Director of the UCLA Center for Behavior, Evolution, and Culture (https://bec.ucla.edu/).

As the evolutionary social sciences have expanded, the number of professional societies has grown, and faculty and students face an ever-increasing number of choices of which societies to join and which meetings to attend. As the oldest of our professional societies, HBES has an opportunity to play a leading role in this expansion of our field. On the other hand, as the field grows, HBES is at risk of becoming less relevant if we become more siloed and inward looking. Evolutionary social scientists are in a better position than anyone to understand the importance of diversity in ideas, people, and perspectives for keeping any community vibrant and evolving. If elected, I will work to strengthen what HBES does well, but I will also work to expand our horizons, to increase our diversity, and to welcome new voices and expertise. I will reach out to underrepresented scholars and younger researchers who have not yet discovered what evolutionary perspectives have to offer in their work.

The society has selected two great candidates this year, and I look forward to serving in whatever capacity I can.

Nominees for Members-At-Large of HBES

I am an Assistant Professor of Psychology in the Oklahoma Center for Evolutionary Analysis (OCEAN) at Oklahoma State University. I earned my MSc in Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology at the University of Oxford and my PhD at Arizona State University. My primary research investigates female sociality and friendship; it has been published in Evolution and Human Behavior, Nature Human Behaviour, Psychological Science, and the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

HBES is my home. I have been an active member, speaking at the Student Mentor Lunch, co-organizing the Evolutionary Psychology Preconference, serving on an HBES program committee, and chairing the HBES Grievance Committee, which aims to foster wide-ranging participation and retention in our community. I also co-founded OCEAN to train future generations of evolutionary social scientists. The research produced by HBES members is among the most rigorous, intellectually impactful, and able to produce true scientific advancement. As a council member, I would continue our focus on exemplary work and aim to responsibly increase the visibility, relevance, and reach of evolutionary social science. To me, this also means focusing on (current and future) researchers—identifying members’ unmet needs, improving the availability of good training, and facilitating access to resources (e.g., mentorship, funding) that further members’ scholarship and career goals.

In my 16 years as a member of HBES, I’ve seen the society through the eyes of a first-year Ph.D. student who’s carpooled for 13 hours in a van with nine other early-career researchers to attend the 2005 conference in Austin, and through those of the 2018 conference’s host and organizer in Amsterdam. I’ve served on multiple conference committees and as an editor for the society’s official journal. I’d now like to contribute to HBES by serving on the executive council.

If elected, I’d advocate for two issues that are important to me. The first concerns nurturing the society’s disciplinary diversity. HBES is at its best when its members hear and learn from evolutionary scientists that use different approaches to understand human behavior. As an experimental psychologist, I’d push for increased participation from behavioral ecologists, cultural evolutionists, and behavioral geneticists. The second concerns learning from and adopting the strengths of the open science movement. EHB has done well in this regard (e.g., requiring open data and accepting registered reports). I’d advocate for continuing along this path by developing platforms for sharing conference presentations (and their data), pushing for greater open access publishing, and encouraging more large-scale collaborations between society members.

I’m an Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of New Mexico. I completed my PhD at Florida State University and my postdoc at the Kinsey Institute. My research applies social selection, sexual selection, and signaling theory to examine how humans compete both to be selected as social partners and to select advantageous ones. I investigate how intrasexual competitive pressures asymmetrically shape men’s and women’s cognition, behavior, and physiology. I’ve presented my findings at 7 HBES conferences.

I believe the most formidable threats to our scholarship are ideological bias and suppression of controversial hypotheses/findings. As Heterodox Academy’s psychology representative, I am committed to viewpoint diversity and scientific rigor. Indeed, one of the qualities I most respect about HBES is its pursuit of truth, irrespective of whether those findings or interpretations are politically expedient. As a member-at-large, I would defend HBES’ commitment to theory, methods, and data against outrage mobs and ideological attack.

My secondary goal is to better integrate evolutionary perspectives into mainstream dialogue. Online videos are increasing in popularity and prevalence. If elected, I’d encourage the creation of brief videos depicting: 1.) evolutionary scholars and their labs to aid undergraduates’ selection of prospective mentors and 2.) recent EHB publications in approachable terms for lay audiences. Through such outreach, we could bolster the relevance and adoption of evolutionary approaches.

I obtained my PhD in experimental psychology from The University of Southern Mississippi. My research addresses how competing reproductive and survival motives shape social perceptions and interpersonal preferences through the judicious weighing of tradeoffs. My vision for serving as member-at-large is to contribute to transparency initiatives. First, I intend to contribute to the ever-increasing online presence of the society by promoting society activities and disseminating findings in a manner that is accessible to a lay public. Such dissemination will serve to present findings in evolutionary sciences accurately while specifically working to dispel pervasive misperceptions of our field that undermine public understanding. My second goal for transparency is providing a platform to facilitate engagement with best open science practices to so members feel confident in their abilities to ensure a reproducible science. Within this goal, I intend to start a dialogue to identify systemic barriers that impede engagement in open science so HBES can address barriers for more inclusive open science involvement. Through this proposed emphasis on inclusivity, I then intend to lay the groundwork for a more collaborative society that encourages interdisciplinary research and adversarial collaborations that would serve to enhance the reproducibility of findings in evolutionary science.

Website: mitchbrownevpsych.weebly.com

Nominees for Student Representative of HBES

Hi everyone, my name is Jordann Brandner and I am running for the HBES Student Representative position. I am a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow working toward my Ph.D. in Psychology at Kansas State University. I research evolutionary social cognition, specifically social and cognitive models of relationship decision making, sexual communication, and perceptions of relationships (more info can be found on my website: jordannbrandner.com). I am particularly suited for this position because I have previously served as the Student Representative for Women in the Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences for 2 years and I am currently the treasurer for that organization. Additionally, I have prior experience as the Mentor Chairperson for my department, where I managed the mentorship of new graduate students, organized professional development seminars, and was the liaison for new graduate students as they transitioned into our program. As your HBES Student Representative, I will strive to establish resources for those newly transitioning to a career in the evolutionary sciences. I will also communicate and engage with student members, taking your concerns to the executive council in an actionable format to improve the opportunities and experiences of all student members, both during and between our annual conferences.

I am a social psychology Ph.D. candidate at Tulane University, where I works under Damian Murray. Before Tulane, I earned my B.S. in Psychology, and in Evolution & Behavior, studying under Barry Kuhle from the University of Scranton. I then earned my M.S. in Experimental Psychology under the supervision of T. Joel Wade, from Bucknell University.

My research aims to understand people’s sexual relationships. I investigate people’s sexual desires and behaviors when they are threatened by infectious diseases, and people’s motivations to contact their ex-sexual partners (for more info: https://www.jamesbmoran.com/).

If elected as Student Representative, the first goal will be to organize a peer-mentorship program, where senior students will be paired with junior students to create networking and guidance opportunities. Additionally, I will hold student-networking events at future HBES conferences. I have prior experience hosting student events; during the 2019 Northeastern Evolutionary Psychology Society, I co-organized a mentorship event that hosted speakers Drs. David Buss, Sarah Hill, Steven Gangestad, and Tania Reynolds!  If elected as the Student Rep, I look forward to working with the Executive Council and the students affiliated with HBES to foster a community where interdisciplinary scholars can collaborate with one another.

Hello, my name is Summer Mengelkoch, and I am a 4th year graduate student pursuing my PhD at Texas Christian University. My research uses evolutionary theory to better understand relationships between biology and human behavior. To do so, I investigate relationships between biological factors (including hormones, hormonal contraceptive use, inflammatory markers, and immune function) and behaviors (including eating behavior, mate preferences, cognition, and decision-making).

Throughout my career, I intend to improve academia by increasing collaboration and practicing radical kindness. HBES, as an organization, is well-poised to provide researchers with opportunities to increase collaborations across disciplines and organizations. If elected to the HBES executive council, I will focus my efforts on increasing opportunities to foster collaborative relationships, along with providing support for underrepresented groups, for whom these types of collaborations can be especially beneficial, but potentially more difficult to initiate. Further, by promoting kindness in discourse and collaboration, I hope to improve the academic experiences of those I engage with.

In my free time, I enjoy traveling, crocheting, aerial silks, board games, and spending time with my dog-child, Scrunchie. More information about my research, and a photo of my dog, can be found here.

Nominee for Treasurer of HBES

I received my Ph.D. in developmental and evolutionary psychology from University of California, Santa Barbara, and my B.S. in psychology (with a minor in mathematics) from Northern Kentucky University.  After receiving my doctoral degree, I was hired at the University of Redlands in 2009, where I am currently an Associate Professor.  Much of my research has involved studying intergenerational interactions using a biosocialcognitive approach to understand the consequences of ageism on older adults’ life course outcomes and to identify potential mitigating factors.  I have also investigated sex differences in casual sexual behavior and life history strategy as a function of father absence; the effect of genetic relatedness on sibling conflict and cooperation; the relationship between prenatal testosterone exposure (2D:4D), tomboyism, and temperament; and theory of mind across the life span.  I am currently an associate editor at the journal Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences. My university website is here.

I attended my first HBES conference in Oregon (2010) and have been hooked ever since.  Not only has HBES provided a place to reconnect with colleagues that I do not see otherwise, I always leave the conference re-energized for thinking about human behavior from an evolutionary perspective.  I have found that attending talks and networking opportunities at HBES has informed my teaching as well as my own research, both refining and reinforcing the importance/relevance of taking an evolutionary approach to understanding individual differences.  As Treasurer of HBES, I look forward to giving back and serving the society.

Nominee for Secretary/Archivist of HBES

I am an Associate Professor in Psychology at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan (USA). My Ph.D. on variation in face preferences was completed in 2008 and was funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. Thereafter, I completed a one-year Economic and Social Research Council postdoctoral fellowship in the Face Research Laboratory with Drs. Ben Jones and Lisa DeBruine, followed by a 3-year postdoctoral fellowship funded by the American Institute of Bisexuality at the Pennsylvania State University with Dr. David Puts. I joined the faculty at Oakland University in 2012 and received tenure in 2017.  I have published more than 70 journal articles, produced two edited volumes, currently serve as a member on three Editorial Boards, and am an Associate Editor for Evolutionary Psychology. More information on my work and copies of my publications can be found on my website. I hope to work with members of the HBES community to ensure that HBES continues to be an organized and safe place for the open exchange of scientific ideas.

Nominee for Communications Officer of HBES

I hold a Ph.D. in psychology with a specialization in evolution and human development from Oakland University (2020). My expertise centers on human evolution, behavior genetics, and human development with an applied focus on how evolutionary social science can inform teaching and learning strategies in higher education. I am passionate about communicating science, with much of my writing effort now being devoted to public-facing communications via social media. I work as a Research Scientist for WGU Labs, and currently serve as the Communications Officer for HBES.

HBES has been my academic home since I began graduate school in 2015. I served as the Student Representative of HBES from 2017-2019 before being elected to my current role as Communications Officer in 2019. In this role I have reinvented the HBES newsletter into a bimonthly e-newsletter, achieving an average 53% open rate and 22% click rate across campaigns. I also created the HBES blog that allows authors of EHB articles to publish popular write-ups. In my management of HBES’s social media accounts, I increased society visibility ten-fold. My continued goals for HBES are to help build our membership, increase interdisciplinary content, and expand the blog. You can learn more about me here.