I was born and grew up in picturesque St. Petersburg, Russia. With my move to United States in April of 1999, I was given a chance to pursue any career I wanted. Psychology was very intriguing to me. In addition to my psychology major, I also picked up a business minor. During my undergraduate work, I quickly drew parallels between key business outcomes and their most important enabler – human capital. I quickly decided to dedicate my studies and career to the field of Industrial/Organizational Psychology.
I received my Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology from Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio and was fortunate enough to launch my career in Talent Management at NCR, the only Fortune 500 company in the area, as a Talent Acquisition Consultant. As my interest to develop my skills in Talent Management and Organizational Development only grew, I decided to continue my education and moved to Chicago to pursue my Doctoral degree in I/O Psychology at The Chicago School.
In order to prepare myself for my I/O journey, I eagerly searched for opportunities to get hands on practice in training and development during my experience in Talent Acquisition. While at NCR, I piloted a brand new process through partnership with NCR employees in India. I trained the team in India on our process, measures and policies. In turn, I trained my team in the United States on cultural differences and challenges they are likely to encounter in working with employees in India. At The Revere Group, I developed a training program for the Talent Acquisition team to gain alignment on the organizational employer branding strategy.
As I transitioned from Talent Acquisition to acquire more industry experience in other areas of Industrial/Organizational Psychology, I started working on two projects simultaneously with Metrus Group and Rush University Medical Center in the beginning of my second year in the doctoral program. I was extremely busy but I don't regret it as I gained great experience working with both organizations. My work with Metrus Group supplemented my degree from a professional school with more academic research. I worked directly with the CEO, Dr. Schiemann, and contributed research findings on talent development, business management, talent acquisition, employer branding, performance measurement, employee engagement and strategic alignment which gave me an opportunity to significantly expand my knowledge around current industry issues. My research and pieces of writing have been published in Dr. Schiemann’s latest book titled Reinventing Talent Management.
My experience with Rush University Medical Center provided me with more applied, analytical experience in healthcare. My role entailed statistical analysis of results from the patient and employee surveys as well as new survey design consultation. I enjoyed spending hours analyzing data and producing visual graphs and charts that show clear and concise results to the bottom line. I presented findings to the leadership team of one of the departments I was working with, in which I was able to tell the story and add context to the data in my final report.
While finishing my masters degree, I worked with United Stationers in the Organizational Development department. There I developed a Talent Management Workbook to be used by all managers with direct reports potentially impacting 6,000 employees. I designed this solution to support leaders in managing talent within their teams. Scope of material included Leadership Development, Individual Development Plans, Succession Planning, Performance Management and Coaching. The content included tools and resources to guide leaders in supporting employees throughout the talent cycle.
I've joined United Airlines a year ago, and since then, I have worked on Learning, Leadership Development and Organizational Effectiveness initiatives. Additionally, I manage new talent onboarding and have worked on projects in light of the merger between United Airlines and Continental Airlines. It has been an exciting journey for an I-O professional to be involved in a merger of two large airlines to create world's largest carrier. To support leaders through this integration, I facilitate a Leading Change workshop to equip top leaders with Change Management tools and best practices to lead their teams through the merger.
When I am not working or writing my dissertation, I am traveling internationally (one of the great perks of working for an airline), reading non-fiction and watching hockey (fulfilling the Russian stereotype, I guess 
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