Lori Snyder

My primary research interest focuses on the experience of underrepresented groups in the workplace, including women, racial and ethnic minorities, members of the LGBTQ community, and persons with disabilities, with a particular focus on experiences of students and faculty who are members of marginalized groups in STEM fields. One representation of this focus is my NIH-funded studies, which work to comprehensively understand the social and cultural factors that influence the STEM interests, goals, achievements, and persistence of Native American undergraduates. As part of these grants, my team has been working since 2013 to establish a longitudinal data set on multiple cohorts of American Indian and Alaska Native undergraduates, connecting their experiences to major choice, persistence, graduation, and other academic and well-being outcomes. Ultimately, we are interested in using the findings of this research to develop programs and resources to benefit the engagement and persistence of Native American students in higher education, and STEM in particular.

A second effort in this area is the NSF ADVANCE Institutional Transformation award (2022-2027) titled OU Elevate, which will create, test, and implement a toolkit to ensure that policies and practices used in evaluating faculty performance are aligned with institutional goals and aspirations. This project merges research on performance appraisal with my interest in the experiences of marginalized faculty to ensure that evaluation processes value the efforts of all faculty.

Additionally, I study Occupational Health Psychology, including workplace well-being and safety. One stream of this research investigates the demands of dual roles, such as employee-family member, student-worker, and student-parent, and explores moderators such as personal and institutional resources, as well as outcomes such as psychological and physical well-being. A second objective of this research is to examine the social influences that shape employee perception of risk and safety behavior.