Kenn Barron

Kenn Barron is a Professor of Psychology at James Madison University (JMU) and Co-Director of the Motivation Research Institute. He began working at JMU in 2000 after receiving his PhD in social/personality psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1999. His research focuses on motivation and the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), and has appeared in the Journal of Educational Psychology, Contemporary Educational Psychology, Educational and Psychological Measurement, Educational Psychologist, the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Teaching of Psychology, New Directions for Teaching and Learning, and the Journal of Applied Sport Psychology.

Kenn also regularly teaches coursework in research methods, statistics, motivation, and social psychology, and puts his knowledge of motivation into practice by coordinating JMU’s Psychology Learning Community (PLC). The PLC is an integrated academic-residential program for first-year students. Students take part in a unique introduction to the field of psychology and jump start to the major through a series of curricular and co-curricular experiences designed specifically for them, while living together in the same freshman residence hall.

Throughout his career, he has received numerous teaching, research, service, and advising awards. For example in 2012, he was named both a fellow of the American Psychological Association and one of Princeton Review’s Top 300 professors in America.