Welcome, Kari Hoy!

We are excited to welcome our newest Research Assistant, Kari Hoy, to the ShadowBox team! Kari joins us from Penn State University with a background in applying psychological theories to organizational practices. To get her feet wet, she is currently assisting with our work in child welfare and managing our new website! To learn more about Kari, take a look at her bio. Welcome to the ShadowBox team, Kari! 

A note from Kari:

“To me, an exciting element of ShadowBox is that our scenarios encourage trainees to think about decision making outside the context of rigid organizational procedures. In today’s complex and evolving workplaces, it is not enough to base important decisions solely on adherence to established procedures. The ability to think critically and make sense of complex, ambiguous, and ever-changing situations is rarely deliberately trained. Many organizations in my experience expected new trainees to learn via a “sink-or-swim” approach – by throwing an individual into a challenging situation and expecting them to succeed.

In contrast, ShadowBox scenarios allow participants to apply knowledge from past experiences and receive feedback from experts about their decision making. In some contexts, like child welfare, participants engage in candid discussions with facilitators and coworkers. Through these realistic exercises, ShadowBox cultivates expertise through expert-guided repetition and feedback. In my opinion (and experience), this is a much more effective way to improve decision making — by encouraging mental simulation and providing expert  feedback, trainees ultimately make better decisions.”