Anna Kallschmidt, Ph.D.
Professional Storyteller
Educating One Meme at a Time
Intersectional Researcher | Applied Organizational Psychologist
About Dr. Anna Kallschmidt
Before my career as a scientist, I was quite the business woman…kidding…kind of. I started my own piano business when I was 12 because the North Florida town I grew up in was so small there were not many options for music lessons. Thanks to my mother who homeschooled me, I have always had a passion for learning, and frequently wanted to be “'everything’ when I grow up.” Eventually, I slowed my career as a bluegrass fiddle player to commit to college, and move to the “big city,” which for me was Tampa, FL., where I earned my B.A.
Since then, I have completed my Ph.D. in industrial/organizational psychology as I work full-time. My passion/research focus is on investigating social class background, race, and gender as cultural influences on workplace behaviors and outcomes. In 2019 I received the Student Leadership award from the APA's Committee on Socioeconomic Status. I have published in the Journal of Vocational Behavior, The Handbook of Intercultural Training, and the American Voices Project's Crisis Monitoring Series . My work has been presented at SIOP, AOM, SPSSI, APS, APA, and government research events.
In academia, I have nine years of experience, including research, teaching, advising, and tutoring. My teaching philosophy is to encourage critical thinking through humor. My applied work mantra is that "every project is a DEIA project." I have spent the past six years applying my research to public and private organizations via implementing employee engagement strategies, competency modeling, diagnostic research, personnel selection, and quantitative measure design, and organizational coaching.
Scholarly Work
My work is the first to identify a low-income background as a socially stigmatized identity in the workplace. I am interested in answering questions about how a working-class background intersects with race and gender identities to influence social mobility opportunities, career choices, perceptions, and stigma in the workplace. I am also interested in how the American Dream is perceived and to whom people believe it is accessible to.
September, 2018
A qualitative analysis on White men from low-income backgrounds who experienced social mobility. My first official work, and the first to identify a low-income background as a stigmatized identity in the workplace, even when intersecting with two privileged identities.
"Evaluation of Cross-Cultural Training: A Review" in The Cambridge Handbook of Intercultural Training
June, 2020
Anna and her team are the authors of the ninth chapter of this textbook, Evaluation of Cross-Cultural Training.
March 2021
A mixed-methods analysis conducted on national data gathered during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.