Dr. Elizabeth Canning – Lab Director

Dr. Canning is currently an Associate Professor in the Psychology Department at Washington State University. She received her PhD in social psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2016, where she worked with Dr. Judith Harackiewicz. Afterwards she spent three years as a postdoctoral researcher in the Mind and Identity in Context Lab at Indiana University, where she worked with Dr. Mary C. Murphy. In Fall 2025 – Spring 2026, Elizabeth will be on sabbatical at the Wissenschaftskolleg in Berlin, Germany.

Office: Johnson Tower 210
Email: elizabeth.canning@wsu.edu

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Makita White, Ph.D.

Makita joined the BOLD lab in the Fall of 2020 and graduated with her PhD in 2025. She is currently a postdoc at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research interests lie mainly in the realm of interpersonal influence and how it can lead to attitude and behavior change, with an emphasis on the effect of unintentional influence and how it can be caused by perceived class, race, and gender. She loves figuring out how things work, and her goal is to uncover and change patterns of behavior that lead to negative outcomes for students. On the side, she enjoys reading, exploring, and making art in many different mediums. She considers psychology to be her passion.

Ray Bennett, Ph.D.

Ray joined the BOLD Lab in the Fall of 2022 and graduated with his PhD in 2025. He earned a Bachelors of Arts in Psychology from Sacramento State University and a Master of Science in Industrial Organizational Psychology from San Jose State University. His primary research interest includes understanding how the perceived legitimacy of disability statuses impacts the perceptions of people with disabilities in the workplace and in other organizational contexts. His additional areas of research interest include topics related to stigma and access for those with other frequently delegitimated and minoritized identities. In his free time, he enjoys working out, playing with his service dog, engaging in volunteer advocacy work, and watching too many TV shows.

Sumaia Ali Raisa, MS

Sumaia Ali was a member of the BOLD Lab in 2022-2025. Her academic journey includes a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and a Master of Science in School Psychology from the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Additionally, she holds another master’s degree in Program Evaluation & Research from West Virginia University. Her primary research focus revolves around developing and evaluating interventions to enhance motivation, persistence, and academic success among undergraduate students in the STEM field. She enjoys reading, Yoga, biking, and traveling.

Undergraduate Research Assistants