Introducing New Graduate Student Josephine Fealy

August 5, 2024 - Shelly DeJong

Meet Josephine Fealy, an incoming graduate student in the Social/Personality Psychology research area.

 

Name: Josephine (Jo, Josie) Fealy (they/them) 

Hometown: Martinez, CA

Education background: I was homeschooled K-12, started community college courses concurrent with high school. Originally, I intended to be an art major. I left community college to enter the workforce and returned in 2019 to finish said art degree. I found myself drawn to Psychology and changed majors in my junior year. 

 

 

Tell us about your background/experience. 

My work experience is primarily upper management and operations; I have been a multi-manager for a rapidly growing sandwich chain, an Executive Assistant to a CEO, and a project manager for a non-profit hospice. In my undergrad, I also served as a Lab Manager, and was an officer in three student clubs. 

 

Why grad school? 

I fell in love with the research process during my undergraduate and jumped on every chance I had to work on projects, posters, and papers. Grad school was an obvious choice! 

 

What do you hope to research while you're here?  

I want to better understand how individuals come to be who they are, and how self-knowledge can be used towards achieving goals, particularly goals that relate to success and happiness. To that end, I'll be starting out researching personality genomics with Dr. Ted Schwaba, to learn more about the relationship between genetics and personality outcomes across the lifespan. 

 

Why are you interested in Social Personality Psychology?  

Social Personality interests me because it explores the aspects of psychology that we interact with in the most tangible way. Personality particularly interests me, because it represents to ourselves and others who we are and shapes our experiences. 

 

In your free time, what do you like to do? 

I've got too many interests and hobbies! Right now, I most often play tabletop rpgs, draw, knit, and read.