Valerie Eastman

Professor
Director, 3-2 Occupational Therapy Program

Phone: (417) 873-7305
E-mail: veastman@drury.edu
Office: Pearsons Hall 208

Dr. Eastman holds a doctoral degree in industrial-organizational psychology and teaches courses in that specialization area, as well as introduction to psychology,psychology and sustainability, psychological tests and measurements, psychology and the law, and abnormal psychology. She also serves as departmental supervisor for all undergraduate internships, which allows for extensive contacts with community-based internship site mentors and students.   

Extensive service to the Department of Behavioral Science is provided through Dr. Eastman's role as supervisor of assessment. In this capacity, she compiles appropriate data and prepares annual evaluations of her department's effectiveness in terms of achieving stated goals and objectives. As co-investigator on the department's National Science Foundation grant, Dr. Eastman's expertise in assessment is highly valued. Specifically, she is overseeing the evaluation of her department's undergraduate research experience, The Scientific Core.

Much of Dr. Eastman's non-grant related scholarship also involves the assessment of student activities. She is exploring web-based internship supervision, and in collaboration with Dr. Regina Waters, Communication Department, she is conducting a longitudinal study of student use of on-line advising resources and its impact on students' relationships with their advisors. Dr. Eastman's published works examined human factors and training in industry, such as user perceptions of office equipment and the impact of music and imagery on learning and attitudes in industry training classes. She has studied job stress at nuclear power plants, and has conducted research, in collaboration with Dr. Mary Utley, that examines pregnancy and employment discrimination, particularly during the application process. Other research interests include family/work conflict, psychology education, and sustainability.  

Dr. Eastman also serves as a member of Habitat for Humanity of Springfield's family selection committee, is the faculty sponsor for that organization's campus chapter, and is a co-sponsor of Psi Chi, the national psychology honor society.  In her spare time, Dr. Eastman enjoys reading fiction and traveling with her husband and two children. She is especially fond of riding roller coasters.

Education
B.A., Drury College, 1984
M.A., Iowa State University, 1988
Ph.D., Iowa State University, 1990

Drury University faculty member since 1991
Professor since 2011