Alex Howland, PhD, is an organizational psychologist and founder of Virbela, a virtual world platform used by organizations including Stanford Graduate School of Business, UC San Diego, and enterprise clients such as the World Bank and PwC. His work focuses on the measurement of behavior in immersive and AI-mediated environments, with an emphasis on leadership, decision-making, and interpersonal effectiveness under dynamic, high-pressure conditions.
He has led the development of simulation-based approaches to leadership assessment and development that enable direct observation of behavior in context, building on prior research in virtual assessment centers published in Consulting Psychology Journal. His work spans both academic and applied settings, including prior roles at UC San Diego and Alliant International University, and has been supported by more than $2M in research funding from the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC), the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the American Psychological Association.
