Mary Murphy is an associate professor of psychological and brain sciences at Indiana University and a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) at Stanford University during the 2015–16 academic year. Her research focuses on understanding how people’s social identities and group memberships, such as their gender, race, and socioeconomic status, interact with the contexts they encounter to affect people’s thoughts, feelings, motivation, and performance. In the realm of education, her research illuminates the situational cues that influence students’ academic motivation and achievement with an emphasis on understanding when those processes are similar and different for majority and minority students. In the realm of organizations and tech, her research examines barriers and solutions for increasing diversity in STEM fields. In 2013, she was named a Rising Star by the Association for Psychological Science (APS). She is the recipient of over $8 million in federal and foundation grants including a recent $2.2 million NSF CAREER award for her research on strategies to improve diversity in STEM. Her research has been profiled in the New York Times, Forbes, Harvard Business Review, Scientific American, and NPR, among other outlets.
