Delaram Totonchi, Ph.D.
Research Scientist, Research Assistant Professor
Delaram (Dela) Totonchi is a Research Scientist at Motivate Lab and Research Assistant Professor at the University of Virginia, with a background in educational and social psychology. Her scholarship reflects an intersection of three main interests: (a) understanding how students’ motivational beliefs affect their achievement and persistence, particularly in STEM disciplines; (b) examining the socio-cultural and contextual factors that impact students’ motivation, academic success, and their well-being; and, (c) improving measurement practices in educational and social psychology. In her current role, Dela supports Motivate Lab’s efforts to design, implement, and evaluate motivational interventions aimed to promote student success. Dela earned her B.S. in Psychology from Allameh Tabataba’i University in Tehran, Iran. Upon moving to the U.S., she attained her M.S. in Experimental Psychology and her Ph.D. in Educational Psychology and Program Evaluation from Old Dominion University.
