Member Spotlight: David Arena Jr.

Name
David Arena Jr.

Position/Employer
Assistant Professor of Management at the University of Texas at Arlington

How long have you been a SIOP member?
I joined in 2014, making this my 10th year as a SIOP member.

What roles have you had within SIOP?
I currently serve as the chair of the SIOP LGBTQIA+ Committee. I've held multiple roles within that committee such as the awards subcommittee chair and the graduate student representative. I have also served as the chair of the AWD Goldstein-Schneider Scholarship by Macey Fund.

Interest area(s)
I explore contemporary DEI and work–family issues within work contexts. I am particularly interested in dynamically stigmatized employees’ identity characteristics that either change over time (such as pregnancy or parental status) or can be actively managed in their presentation (such as sexual orientation or political affiliation), and how these employees navigate their work.

What sparked your interest in I-O psychology?
My junior year of college I took (on a whim) an introductory I-O psych course (taught by SIOP member Isaac Sabat), as an elective, and the rest was history. I was a premedicine major at the time and completely shifted my degree program because I was so interested in I-O.

What role do you see I-O psychology playing in the future of work?
I-O psychology has the potential to shape organizations (and work generally) so that everyone can succeed. In my own work on working mothers and fathers for example, we can use I-O psychology to craft and inform pertinent leave policy or support structures so that working parents can successfully balance work and family tasks. This is a collaborative effort and involves careful research and avenues of sharing research findings to individuals who have power to drive change within their workplaces.

What work trends are you seeing and hearing about and how can I-O psychology practitioners, educators, and students impact these trends?
The biggest trends I am seeing center on the adoption of AI and the utility of DEI. As the workplace continues to change, it is important that we as I-O psychologists or SIOP members keep the data at the forefront. The data should serve as the foundation for the evidence-based practices we craft to keep up with the growing and changing workforce. An impact we can have is continuing to encourage organizations to base their interventions and strategies for navigating new work issues on empirical evidence.

What advice would you give to students or those early in their career?
Take advantage of everything that SIOP has to offer. If you are looking at the schedule for the conference and see a session that sounds interesting, you should attend! Also, don't be afraid to approach people at the SIOP Annual Conference (whether it's an academic who has published work you really like, or a practitioner that is doing excellent applied work). Building community at SIOP is so important!

What is one of your favorite SIOP Annual Conference memories/highlights?
My very first SIOP Annual Conference presentation was at the 2015 event in Philadelphia. I grew up in southern New Jersey, and my parents bought guest passes to come see me speak. Ten years later, some of my best memories are catching up with the many good friends I've made in the field over the years.

Please share one non-I-O-related bit of information about yourself.
I ran 500 miles last year and am on track to run 600 in 2024.

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