Dr. Kirsten Westmoreland (University of Bristol, Ph.D.) came to Rice in 2021 as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow for the Doerr Institute for New Leaders before joining the Department of Psychological Sciences as a Lecturer. Dr. Westmoreland's current research focuses broadly on individual differences in emotion and person perception and the impact of generative AI on social functioning. She is interested in pedagogical research on the impact of generative AI on personality and the reciprocal pathways in which these intersect. Beyond this, she has long been involved in psychometric scale development and validation across a myriad of psychosocial capacities.

Dr. Westmoreland is an active member of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, the Association of Psychological Science, and the European Association of Social Psychology. At Rice, she serves on both the university Committee for Undergraduate Curriculum and the Examinations and Standings Committee as well as the Undergraduate Committee for Psychological Sciences. She is also a faculty associate and Divisional Advisor for Social Sciences at Will Rice College.