Dr. Steele received her B.A. in psychology as well as her B.Ed. from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. From there she moved to Boston, Massachusetts where she attended Harvard University's School of Education. She completed a M.Ed. and then proceeded into the graduate program in Social Psychology. Dr. Steele completed her M.A. and her Ph.D. in Social Psychology through the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University. After completing a SSHRC post-doctoral position at the University of Waterloo she accepted an assistant professorship at York University in Toronto.
Dr. Steele is a Professor of Psychology in the Faculty of Health at York University. From 2015-2018 Dr. Steele served as the inaugural Associate Undergraduate Program Director in the Department of Psychology. In the 2018-2019 academic year, Dr. Steele was named a Research Leader at York University and received a York-Massey fellowship which allowed her to spend her sabbatical at Massey College, University of Toronto. Dr. Steele has received a Faculty of Health Established Career Teaching Award and was nominated by the Department of Psychology for a Faculty of Health Service Award for her contributions.
Dr. Steele's program of research aims to increase our basic, applied, and theoretical understanding of the development and consequences of racial and gender biases in childhood. Her research is guided by the belief that if we wish to create a more equitable society, it is critical to understand the developmental foundation and malleability of these group-based associations. The majority of her research has focused on what is referred to in the general public as ‘unconscious bias’, the spontaneously activated associations that children and adults have with people from different social groups. Dr. Steele aims to cultivate a research community that values and encourages different perspectives and that supports the success of students from diverse lived experiences. For more information about current and ongoing research projects, as well as the lab culture, please click on the Research & Lab Home and the Publications tabs above. You can also see Dr. Steele's CV.
Dr. Steele is teaching the Specialized Honours Thesis Seminar course (PSYC 4001) in the 2022-2023 academic year, and will oversee the graduate course Contemporary Issues in Personality and Social Psychology (PSYC 6400) in the fall term. She is currently the coordinator of the Specialized Honours program and the coordinator of the Social/Personality graduate area.
