Deborah Powell

Deborah Powell is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Guelph’s College of Social & Applied Human Sciences. Her research focuses on industrial-organizational psychology, with a specialization in personnel selection. She explores factors influencing employment interview performance, including interview anxiety, impression management tactics, and personality testing. Dr. Powell holds a PhD from the University of Western Ontario (2007), an MA (2002), and a BA (2000) in Psychology from Queen’s University, alongside a BPHE (1999).

Her work examines how anxiety and deceptive self-presentation affect interview outcomes, aiming to improve fair and valid hiring practices. Recent studies address interview biases, remote interview innovations, and gender dynamics in caregiving and workplace equality. She teaches graduate courses on recruitment strategies and research methods, as well as undergraduate courses on psychological measurement and applied psychology.

Dr. Powell leads the InterviewGuelph lab, active on Twitter @InterviewGuelph, and collaborates widely on topics like video interview design, candidate experience optimization, and reducing bias in hiring. Her research also explores perfectionism in workplaces and the ethical challenges of virtual interviews in psychological research.