Statistician II, Center for Child and Family Policy
Isaac S. Bisla recently is a Developmental Psychologist who recently earned his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota's Institute of Child Development, where he also completed his M.A. He holds a B.A. in Psychological Science, summa cum laude, from the University of California, Irvine. During his doctoral training, Bisla was supported by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (NSF GRFP), which funded his work on selective trust and resistance to suggestibility in young children through the Early Language and Experience Lab under Dr. Melissa Koenig. His research broadly examines children's epistemic development, including how they evaluate information, resist misleading suggestions, and form trust judgments, as well as the long-term developmental outcomes of early childhood interventions and justice system involvement among youth. His work spans collaborations with the Human Capital Research Collaborative and the Adolescent and Childhood Experiences Lab.
Dr. Bisla has taught undergraduate courses in General Psychology, Personality and Culture, Psychology and Law, Psychology of Juvenile Delinquency, Risk and Resilience, and Lifespan Development at Augsburg University and Hamline University. He has also given guest lectures on risk and resilience among justice-involved youth, gangs and juvenile delinquency, and media influences in child development at the University of Minnesota. He is honored to have mentored undergraduate researchers through the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) and the Next-Gen Psych Scholars Program (NPSP), supporting students from backgrounds systematically excluded from science in preparing for graduate study in psychology.