Hunter Gehlbach is an educational psychologist who brings social psychological principles to bear on educational challenges. His research focuses on improving educational settings through enhancing the social interactions of teachers and students. His specific interests within social psychology focus on social perspective taking -- how people discern the thoughts and feelings of others within the classroom. In addition to this substantive interest, he is also interested in helping social scientists to design effective questionnaires. He teaches courses in both areas.
Currently, he serves as an editorial board member for Educational Psychology Review and Educational Psychology, an advisor to Harvard’s Strategic Data Project, and a member of the National Assessment of Educational Progress’ standing committee for designing their questionnaire.
After graduating with a B.A. from Swarthmore College in psychology and education, Gehlbach taught high school social studies before completing an M.Ed. in school counseling from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and a Ph.D. in educational psychology from Stanford University. He has taught at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education (2006-2015) and joins the faculty at the Gevirtz Graduate School of Education at the University of California-Santa Barbara in July of 2015. Simultaneously, he directs the research efforts at Panorama Education.