Brinleigh Cahoon

Biography

From the beginning of Brinleigh’s tenure at Utah State, they have actively sought out research opportunities in psychology and education. Beginning in 2019, as a freshman student in Psychology, Brinleigh joined Dr. David Feldon’s Early Career Research lab in Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences. With the lab, Brinleigh has worked under three separate nationally funded research grants. In said projects, they have collected data, coded analyses, and independently organized and managed two different databases. Brinleigh has attended both the ASHE 46th Annual General Conference and the 2022 AERA Annual Meeting for contributions to two separate presentations. They contributed to a paper that is currently under review to be published in The Journal of Higher Education. The majority of their research in the Early Career Research lab has focused on the efficacy of educational programs and the validity of standardized testing with specific reference to gender, race, and other demographics. After graduation in Spring 2024, Brinleigh plans to attend graduate school and earn a PhD in behavioral analysis, focusing on the efficacy of social programs related to addiction. Brinleigh aims to leverage their wealth of undergraduate research experience to study the effects of an enriched community on addiction and, by extension, public health.