Stephanie Reeves

About Stephanie Reeves

My research focuses on two questions: what happens when institutions adopt new technology, and who bears the cost when it doesn\'t work as promised. For 14 years I\'ve designed and led applied research at the intersection of behavioral science, equity measurement, and organizational change. I work across program evaluation, AI product assessment, and large-scale field experiments.At WGU Labs, I lead a multi-site R&D portfolio evaluating an LLM-powered student support system across four institutional partners. I built a student research panel from 0 to participants, improved response rates from 5% to 25%, and developed measurement frameworks for AI-powered tools covering help-seeking, belonging, persistence, and agency. Original research from this work found that 19% of online learners know zero people in their professional field. That finding directly shaped product direction.Earlier in my career, I led a randomized controlled trial of a social belonging intervention across 25 institutions, published in Science. I\'ve held research roles at Stanford, Indiana University, Fors Marsh Group, and WGU Labs. My work has appeared in Science, PNAS, and JPSP.My methodological training spans RCTs, quasi-experimental designs, mixed methods, and psychometrics at scale. I\'ve applied these across federal program evaluation, multi-site field experiments, and AI product assessment contexts. The throughline across all of it is equity measurement: identifying where gaps exist, what drives them, and whether interventions actually close them. These questions and the methods to answer them apply across sectors. I\'m interested in organizations that take measurement seriously and expect research to change decisions.

Experience

1. Principal Investigator & Lead Research Scientist

   WGU Labs

   Dec 2024 — Present

   Leading a cross-institutional R&D portfolio at the frontier of AI-powered student support, professional readiness, and belonging research.• Lead end-to-end design, deployment, and evaluation of an LLM-powered student support system across four institutional partners.• Built the Student Insights Council from 0 to participants, a rapid-research panel enabling product validation and efficacy studies at scale, with response rates improved from 5% to 25%.• Produced original research on student social capital gaps: 19% of WGU students know zero people in their professional field; 64% have no peer connections outside coursework; lower-income students lag ~10 percentage points behind on professional network quality.• Developed AI product measurement frameworks spanning help-seeking, navigation, belonging, persistence, and agency, using validated measures.• Manage a team of 5+ researchers across study design, data collection, and synthesis; coordinate cross-functional work with product, engineering, and organizational leadership.• Translate findings directly into product requirements and partnership strategy; research on student social capital and AI tool engagement has shaped product direction across all four institutional partners

Education

• The University of Texas at Austin

  Master of Arts (M.A.), Psychology

  2013 — 2015

• University of Colorado Boulder

  BA, Psychology

  2006 — 2010

• The Ohio State University

  Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Social Psychology

  2015 — 2019