Lab Director

Dr. Rachel Fouladi
Measurement and Modelling Lab, Director
Associate Professor & History, Quantitative, & Theoretical Psychology Area Coordinator, Simon Fraser University Department of Psychology

Rachel Fouladi (Ph.D., 1996; Psychology: Quantitative Methods/Psychometrics, University of British Columbia, Canada) and Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology, Simon Fraser University, British Columbia, Canada. Prior to joining SFU, she was faculty at The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center (Dept. of Behavioral Sciences) and The University of Texas at Austin (Dept. of Educational Psychology), collaborated on multiple multi-year U.S. federal grants, and consulted with the Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation and the Texas Department of Human Services. Dedicated to the advancement of research practice and methods, she has developed a broad research program (with over 70 peer-reviewed publications, 200+ conference presentations, multiple technical/professional reports and newsletter articles, as well as free-ware computer programs) in the development and study of quantitative methods, factors influencing individuals' responses to questionnaires, with applied work in health/well-being measurement and modeling. 

Principles of research justice permeate her work. Her work is varied, but at its core is the idea that research can be done better; and that by doing research better, we can better serve the discipline as well as the public good. Her research activities include addressing questions with the goal of improved methodologies and increased understanding of experiences of individuals from diverse backgrounds to address major gaps in the psychological literature through use of varied methodological strategies and critical examination of methodologies and questionnaire response production processes. In this work, she variously address questions of technique development, application and pedagogy.

Within the Department of Psychology at SFU, she is current Area Coordinator of History, Quantitative, and Theoretical Psychology; in her former institutions, service included comparable leadership roles for the Section of Behavioral Statistics (UT-MDACC) and the Quantitative Methods Area (UT-Austin).  Recipient of Canadian federal research funding, she has also served on Canadian national grant adjudication panels. She has served on the Editorial Advisory Committee the Society for Multivariate Experimental Psychology's journal, Multivariate Behavioral Research (2008-2011), and on editorial boards or as reviewer of key journals in the field. She regularly serves on the Society for Multivariate Experimental Psychology's student dissertation research grant review committee.

She is active in her service to major psychological associations. She is currently President for Division 5 (Quanitative and Qualitative Methods), and will serve on the Presidential Trio through to Aug 2026.. She is a member of the Council of Representatives of the Western Psychological Association. Service to the American Psychological Association's Division 5 (Quanitative and Qualitative Methods) includes contributions to the Division 5 Executive Committee through work on the APA Convention Program Committee (member 2005-2008, co-chair 2007), and as Division Financial Officer (2014-2017). In 2018, she began service (a 3-year term, 2018-2020) as an elected to the APA Council of Representatives (the decision making body of the APA, where she has taken an active role in varied Caucuses and Workgroups -- e.g., Caucus of General and Applied Psychologists/Psychology, Council Diversity Workgroup, Coalition for Academic, Scientific and Applied Research Psychology, Ethnic Minority Issues in Psychology Caucus). In 2020, she was re-elected to serve a 2nd term as member of Council of Representatives of APA (2021-2023), and also elected to serve as Chair of the Coalition for Academic, Scientific and Applied Research Psychology starting in 2021-2023. During this time, she was also elected to serve as a three year term starting in 2023 as member-at-large on the APA Council Leadership Team. Starting in fall 2022, as MAL-elect, she started serving on the organizational committee of the Council Orientation and Membership Program, and will continue service in that role for the next few years until cycling off of CLT at the end of 2025.    

An elected member of the Society for Multivariate Experimental Psychology since 2007, she is also a member of the American Psychological Association (APA), the Western Psychological Association (WPA)), and the American Middle Eastern, North African Psychology Association (AMENA-Psy), and the Society of Indian Psychologists (SIP). Within the American Psychological Association, she is also a member of Division 5 (Quantitative and Qualitiative Methods), Division 35 (Society for the Psychology of Women), Division 45 (Society for the Psychological Study of Culture, Ethnicity and Race) Division 47 (Society for Sport, Exercise & Performance Psychology). For several years, she was also a member of the Running Psychologists, as well as the American Educational Research Association, and Society for the Improvement of Psychological Science (SIPS). A member of Alaska Native/American Indian/Indigenous Women -- Section 6 of Division 35, she also started volunteering in 2023 as co-chair of membership of the section. Past memberships within APA include a number of Divisions, including, the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI, APA Division 9) and Division 15 -- Educational Psychology.  

Currently the area coordinator of the Psychology Department's area of History, Quantitative, and Theoretical Psychology, she is also on the department's Chair's Advisory Committee. For several year, she has also served on the department's Indigenous Reconciliation Committee as co-chair and is chair for the 2024-2025 academic year; in this work, she has been instrumental in the organization of widely attended public colloquia with Indigenous Scholars and Elders and facilitation of points of connection among Indigenous students within and outside of SFU, organization of workshhops, and the regular provision of information regarding relevant resources/scholarship through frequent updates to the IRC website. She is also the Lead on the department's EDI / JEDAI (Justice Equity Diversity Accessibility and Inclusion) workgroup.

At the University/Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences level, she has served in multiple years as a member of the Faculty College and was selected to several review committees; she was invited to join the Faculty's Indigenous Reconciliation Work Group and recently began service on the Indigneous Reconciliation Grants Adjudiction subgroup. At the University-level, she has served two terms on the University Faculty College as a representative for the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, recently (April 2023-March 2024) served as a member of the University President's EDI Advisory Council until it was sunsetted (April 2023-March 2024), and recently joined the University Faculty Engagement Working Group (June 2024-ongoing). She also recently was invited to and joined the SFU Indigenous Student Center Collaborate group which brings together SFU faculty and staff.   

With previous experience as the department's Graduate Program Chair, with service on the university's, FASS, and the department's Graduate Studies Committee, the department's Undergraduate Studies Committee, she has knowledge of graduate and undergraduate programs, and considers mentorship and provision of opportunites to students of diverse backgrounds of particular import. She takes pleasure in volunteering to support students in different ways including helping out where she can in events such as the SFU Psyc Department information events, FNMISA 2023/2024 PowWows, the 2024 SAGE Indigenous Graduate Student Conference. Many of the undergraduate and graduate students in her lab are reflective of this priority.

If you are interested in becoming a graduate student in Dr. Fouladi's lab please look at the Join MML tab, and  please visit the Psychology Department website for information on how to apply to the Department's Graduate Program. For further information, you may also contact Dr. Fouladi by email.