Team members

Tom Reader is Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychological and Behavioural Science at LSE. He studies how organisational culture contributes to accidents and corporate scandals – and in particular, why institutions often fail to see or act on the warning signs of failure. Tom’s research investigates how organisations build a ‘corrective culture’ that prevents accidents: for example, through overcoming barriers that stop people from speaking up about problems, or learning from the feedback of outsiders to correct errors. Tom has published over 60 academic papers and the book Safety at the Sharp End: A Guide to Non-Technical Skills, and is writing a new book about learning from complaints (Cambridge University Press). Tom directs the Culture and Risk Research Unit, the MSc in Organisational and Social Psychology, and the Leading Organisational Culture executive programme.
Email: t.w.reader@lse.ac.uk

Alexandra Chesterfield has over 15 years experience establishing and leading Behavioural Science teams to drive better outcomes in both regulatory and commercial contexts. She leads the Behavioural Risk team at NatWest Group, where her team’s innovative work in transforming Internal Audit has been featured in Forbes (Eccles, 2022). She was previously the first consumer psychologist hired at the UK’s financial regulator (FCA). Alex holds an MSc in Cognitive and Decision Science from UCL, is a part-time PhD candidate at LSE, and is co-author of Poles Apart, published by Penguin Random House in 2021. Alex’s research interests are developing methods to detect cultural capture and sludge in unstructured (text) data using AI and psychology.
Email: a.m.chesterfield@lse.ac.uk

Dr Alex Goddard is post-doctoral research officer in Psychological and Behavioural Science at the London School of Economics. His research interests focus on what makes high-quality dialogue in various domains, and how to reliably quantify psychological phenomena in textual data. He has worked professionally in psychometrics and as a research consultant on organizational culture, with experience designing and validating surveys, qualitative text analysis, and developing machine learning pipelines.
Email: a.j.goddard@lse.ac.uk

Dr Alyssa Pandolfo is a research officer in Psychological and Behavioural Science at the London School of Economics. Her expertise is in how high-risk organizations (e.g., healthcare, aviation) can understand and improve safety-critical behaviors like voicing and listening to concerns. Her work has been published in Organizational Psychology Review, Risk Analysis, BMJ Quality & Safety, and the Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology.
Email: a.pandolfo@lse.ac.uk

Hannah Bunt is a PhD student in the Department of Psychological and Behavioural Science at the London School of Economics (LSE). In her PhD, she explores how large language models can be used for complaint analysis to identify and address organisational issues before they escalate. She holds an MSc in Social and Public Communication from LSE and a BASc in Arts and Sciences from University College London (UCL). Hannah’s broader research interests encompass social psychology, communication, qualitative and computational text analysis, large language models, meta-psychology and research methodology.
Email: h.l.bunt@lse.ac.uk

Dr Sai Kalvapalle is an Assistant Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at the Nova School of Business and Economics. Sai’s research focuses on communication across different organisational settings, including learning from complaints data in healthcare (forthcoming), entrepreneurial pitching, and co-participation with generative AI systems. Sai earned her PhD in Management from the Rotterdam School of Management (Erasmus University), and her MSc in Organisational and Social Psychology from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Email: sai.kalvapalle@novasbe.pt