Meet the Experts

J. Peter Leeds, Ph.D. is an Industrial/Organizational Psychologist with over 30 years of experience designing, analyzing, and applying large-scale personnel and organizational surveys in the U.S. federal government.

He holds a Ph.D. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from Florida Institute of Technology. Dr. Leeds spent 15 years at the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board leading quantitative analyses of major federal surveys, including the Merit Principles Survey. His work there directly influenced federal policy and was cited in the Senate Armed Services Appropriations Bill. He currently leads personnel selection tool validation efforts at the U.S. Census Bureau, including large-scale validation studies using crowd-sourced samples.

A key focus of his research is the development and validation of Situational Judgment Tests (SJTs) and faking-resistant noncognitive measures. He is the originator of Cognitive Acuity Theory and General Acuity Theory, innovative psychophysical approaches to measuring personality and noncognitive traits without relying on transparent self-reports. This work has been published in peer-reviewed APA journals and presented internationally.

Dr. Leeds is an expert in advanced statistical methods including structural equation modeling, measurement invariance, differential item functioning, and criterion-related validity. He has taught graduate courses in statistics and psychological measurement at George Mason University, University of Maryland College Park, University of Baltimore, and The Chicago School of Professional Psychology. He is the recipient of the 2017 Richard H. Butcher Adjunct Faculty Award and has served on numerous thesis committees.

He is the author of over 40 publications and presentations and has been featured on Federal News Radio and in OPM-sponsored webinars.

John M. Ford, Ph.D. is a psychologist, researcher, and educator with more than 30 years of experience in assessment, survey research, text analytics, and applied organizational research.

He served as a Senior Research Psychologist at the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board, where he led large-scale research and survey initiatives, including Merit Principles Surveys spanning 24 federal agencies and more than 100,000 participants. His work examined competencies, hiring, training, employee engagement, self-efficacy, and the use of text analytics in survey and workforce research.

Earlier, at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, he led competency modeling and assessment-development projects for federal clients and helped advance the use of automated content analysis in personnel research. In the private sector, he managed assessment and certification projects for technology clients including Microsoft, Novell, and WordPerfect.

Dr. Ford has published and presented on assessment, text mining, survey research, competency modeling, and expert knowledge elicitation. He also teaches psychology at the university level and writes Morning Psych Notes, an applied-research platform focused on making complex ideas clearer, more practical, and more usable.

Victoria Blanshteyn is a Talent & People Analytics and Organizational Insights leader with over 18 years of experience helping organizations translate workforce data into strategy, leadership capability, and measurable business outcomes. She holds a Ph.D. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from the Graduate Center/Bauch College, City University of New York.

Victoria designs and leads large-scale employee listening, organizational research, and advanced people analytics programs for Fortune 500 companies, turning complex qualitative and quantitative data into decision-ready insights that shape culture, engagement strategy, leadership development, and talent practices across the employee lifecycle.

Her work sits at the intersection of behavioral science, organizational research, and workforce analytics, with a focus on connecting employee sentiment and behavioral data to business performance in order to enable more effective leadership and organizational decision-making.

Victoria is also a Certified Executive Coach, partnering with senior leaders to strengthen self-awareness, improve leadership effectiveness, and navigate complex organizational change. She integrates coaching with people analytics to connect individual leadership development with broader organizational insights, supporting more grounded, evidence-based leadership decisions.

She is a member of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) and has presented research on employee listening and organizational research at the SIOP Annual Conference.