Background

Dr. Abigail T. Panter, PhD (1989, New York University), is an associate professor of psychology and a member of the L. L. Thurstone Psychometric Laboratory at the University of North Carolina (UNC), Chapel Hill. She also consults with The Measurement Group in Culver City, California.

Her work involves developing research designs and data-analytic strategies for applied health problems such as HIV/AIDS and substance abuse. Her publications are in the areas of measurement and test theory, multivariate data modeling, program evaluation design, and individual differences (especially personality). She is conducting a national longitudinal study looking at the role of race and other personal factors on educational diversity in over 8,000 students at 68 U.S. law schools (The Educational Diversity Project).

Dr. Panter regularly consults with federal agencies on grant review, serves on national committees and editorial boards in social/personality psychology and quantitative methods, and is a Fellow of APA. She coedited The Sage Handbook of Methods in Social Psychology (2004), is a coeditor on three volumes on program evaluation and measuring outcomes for HIV/AIDS multisite projects, is a coauthor of an online knowledge base for HIV/AIDS care, and is currently coediting a compendium of innovative methods for teaching statistics in the behavioral sciences.

Dr. Panter has received numerous prizes for her teaching, including the 2003 American Psychological Association’s Jacob Cohen Award for Distinguished Teaching and Mentoring (Division 5: Measurement, Statistics, and Evaluation) and UNC’s Tanner Award, which recognizes excellence in teaching at the undergraduate level. She is also a three-time winner of her department’s professor-of-the-year teaching award, has received UNC’s ACCESS Award for her work teaching students with learning disabilities, and is on the executive committee of UNC’s Academy of Distinguished Teaching Scholars.

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