People
Meet our BORG lab team-- the director, current members, alumni, and affiliates.
Director, Dr. Adi Wiezel
Adi Wiezel, Ph.D. is a social (and political) psychologist whose research emphasizes the structure of political attitudes as well as the emotional, motivational, social mechanisms of attitude change and intergroup relations. She also has strong interests in leadership preferences and has studied the influence of emotion on motivation and engagement in educational settings.
She earned her PhD in social psychology, as well as a master's degree in political science, at Arizona State University, and has also organized a number of workshops centered around depolarization. In her free time, Dr. Wiezel “plays chaotic good”—connecting community by organizing events such as bar trivia nights for strangers, or hosting noir movie nights. She also regularly maintains at least one dilettantish artistic and athletic hobby; currently, ukulele-playing and running (slowly). More recently, she has also taken up working with her partner to restore her slightly quirky midcentury modern home.
Undergraduate Researchers
Lila Seiler
Fall 2024 - Present
Lila Seiler is a junior at Elon, majoring in Exercise Science with a minor in Psychology. She is passionate about understanding the intricate relationship between clinicians and patients, fueling her ambition to attend graduate school to obtain her Doctorate in Physical Therapy as part of Elon's Accelerated Pathways program. In her free time, Lila finds fulfillment as an engaged member of Zeta Tau Alpha sorority and has a love for various sports such as lacrosse and volleyball.
Fiona Carcich
Elon College Fellow
Spring 2026 - Present
Fiona Carcich is a sophomore at Elon, majoring in psychology with a minor in communications. She is a part of the Elon College Fellows program and is passionate about social interactions and learning more about them. She hopes to attend graduate school related to psychology after graduating from Elon in Spring 2028. In her free time, Fiona is an active member of Tri Sigma sorority and enjoys people-watching when she’s back at home, working as a hostess at a local restaurant.
Charlie Stille is a sophomore at Elon, majoring in Psychology with minors in Economics and Business Administration. He is passionate about understanding how people form attitudes about justice, punishment, and political conflict, and how these beliefs shape decision making. After graduating in Fall 2027, Charlie plans to attend law school through Elon’s accelerated 3+2.5 program and hopes to pursue a career focused on business, policy, or public service. In his free time, Charlie enjoys exercising, watching movies, and spending time with friends.
Charlie Stille
Spring 2026 - Present
Justice Wilbourn
Fall 2026
Justice Wilbourn is a rising senior at Elon, majoring in Psychology and Data Analytics. She is passionate about social justice and the intersection of personal identities and political ideologies. After graduation in Spring 2027, she hopes to join the Peace Corps before attending graduate school. In her free time, Justice enjoys playing volleyball, listening to music, and spending time with friends.
Lab Alumni
Sophie Verrecchia
Fall 2024 - Spring 2026
Sophie Verrecchia graduated from Elon in Spring 2026, with a psychology major and minors in dance and neuroscience. She was a founding member of the BORG lab, and during her time with the lab, she worked on transcription and coding for the conversation project, co-authored an invited book chapter on mate psychology, and completed an original research project on mate preferences among lesbian women and straight men, which she presented at both SURF and NCUR.
Lindsay Bialecki
Fall 2024 - Spring 2026
Lindsay Bialecki graduated from Elon in Spring 2026, with a double-major in psychology and political Science. She was a founding member of the BORG lab, and during her time with the lab, she worked on transcription and coding for the conversation project, and completed an original research project on intersectional role models in politics, which received funding with a Grants-in-Aid and which she presented at SURF.
Abram Darby graduated from Elon in Spring 2026, with a major in psychology and a minor in sociology. During his time in the BORG lab, he worked on transcription for the conversation project, and completed an experiment on kin care motivations and leadership as part of a collaborative project, which he presented at both SURF and NCUR.
Abram Darby
Spring 2025 - Spring 2026
Faculty Affiliates & Collaborators
Dr. John K. Wagner is currently the Data and Research Director at the policy consulting firm Single Space Strategies. Previously, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of New Mexico's Department of Political Science, investigating how information flows on social media shape political attitudes and behaviors. Dr. Wagner also spearheaded initiatives aimed at enhancing student and faculty success while promoting greater inclusion within higher education institutions. Alongside these scholarly pursuits, he enjoys a passion for tabletop role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons and an array of engaging computer games.
Dr. John Wagner
Collaborator
Single Space Strategies
Dr. Michelle "Lani" Shiota is a Professor of Psychology at Arizona State University. Her basic science and lab investigates positive emotions, emotion regulation, emotion in close relationships, and emotional mechanisms of health behavior and behavior change. She also conducts applied research related to addiction, including the development and evaluation of trainings for community members in opioid overdose reversal, as well as an intervention to reduce substance use disorder stigma. She received her B.A. in Communication from Stanford University, and her Ph.D. in Social/Personality Psychology from UC Berkeley. She also enjoys an active life as a jazz, contemporary, and hip-hop dancer.
Dr. Michelle "Lani" Shiota
Faculty Affiliate
Arizona State University
Dr. Doug Kenrick is a professor in the Department of Psychology at Arizona State University, where he codirects the Kenrick-Neuberg-Becker-Varnum Social Cognition Laboratory. His research interests include integrating models from evolutionary biology and cognitive science to study the effects of fundamental social motivations (e.g., self-protection, status, mate search) on basic cognitive processes (e.g., attention to, encoding of, memory for different people in a rapidly presented crowd). He has recently applied the same approach to economic decision-making, creativity, conformity, aggression, and religious behavior. In his free time, he enjoys birding, golf, and spending time with his two sons.
Dr. Douglas T. Kenrick
Faculty Affiliate
Arizona State Unversity
Dr. Madison Chandler
Faculty Affiliate
Elon University
Dr. Madison Chandler is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Exercise Science at Elon University. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a PhD in Kinesiology - Cognitive & Motor Neuroscience from Michigan State University,and was a postdoc in the concussion research center at UNC-Chapel Hill. Dr. Chandler's research uses psychological, physiological, and neuroelectric measures to understand how health behaviors (e.g., physical activity, sleep) and health-related attributes (e.g., aerobic fitness, motor skills) can be leveraged to optimize cognitive functioning across the lifespan. In her free time, she enjoys reading British mystery novels, watching college basketball, walking/running her dog, and cooking new recipes.
Helen Joo
Collaborator
Environmental Defense Fund
Helen is a behavioral and social scientist at the Environmental Defense Fund, translating and applying emerging social, cognitive and behavioral science research around environmental issues into actionable ideas. In her free time, she also enjoys woodworking and doing pottery.
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Andrew Moffa
Collaborator
Elon University
Andrew Moffa serves as the Assistant Director in the Kernodle Center for Civic Life at Elon, where he supports co-curricular community and civic engagement initiatives. A native of New Jersey, Andrew has previously worked at universities in Indiana and West Virginia and spent two years as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant in South Korea. In his free time, Andrew closely follows all sports and reads historical fiction.
Dr. Nicholas Bussberg
Faculty Affiliate
Elon University
Dr. Nic Bussberg is an Associate Professor in the Department of Exercise Mathematics and Statistics Elon University. He earned his Ph.D. in Statistical Science from Indiana University, Bloomington. Dr. Bussberg's research focuses on spatial and spatio-temporal statistics, environmental statistics, and integrating reproducibility into undergraduate statistics courses. He also works with undergraduate students on assorted projects that involve math or statistics. In his free time, he enjoys scuba diving.