González Vallejo appointed program director at National Science Foundation

Dr. Claudia González Vallejo, professor of psychology at Ohio University, has been appointed to a program director position with the National Science Foundation’s Division of Social and Economic Sciences in the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences Directorate.

González Vallejo began her one-year National Science Foundation (NSF) post on Sept. 13. The NSF augments its professional staff through the temporary appointment of selected specialists from academia and private industry with its Visiting Scientist, Engineer and Educator program. These specialists provide the NSF with a source of current knowledge of scientific and technological research and development.

González Vallejo previously served as a Jefferson Science Fellow with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine during 2019-20. Working at the U.S. Department of State through September, she served as a program analyst at the Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations, Office of Design, Monitoring, and Evaluation in the Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) team. González Vallejo was the first professor at Ohio University to be selected for this significant award, and only the third faculty member from an Ohio institution to be selected since the program launched in 2004. She was selected in a nationwide competition from professors who are highly accomplished in their fields of science and engineering. She is expected to continue her engagements with the U.S. State Department as a consultant (unpaid) as a service defined by the MOU of the fellowship.

González Vallejo concluded her State Department fellowship with a lecture on Sept. 15 in the National Academy of Sciences Distinguished Lecture Series, speaking on “Judgment Analysis: Framework and Behavioral Observations.” Attendees included individuals from the U.S. State Department, USAID, and other government agencies in addition to academic institutions.

González Vallejo discussed a statistical framework for analyzing human judgment that incorporates both the situational/external and the person/internal level factors that come into play in determining accurate performance. Her lecture demonstrated the usability of the framework when describing a wide array of judgment and decision-making examples, from diagnosis of medical conditions to assessing the risks of an individual joining a terrorist organization. She discussed the inevitability of making judgment and decision errors when the conditions entail uncertainty, and advanced insights for improving evaluations and predictions, as well correcting bias.