Yoi Tibbetts is the Research Director at Motivate Lab and an Assistant Professor of Education at the University of Virginia. He researches motivation and achievement with a focus on changing institutional structures to better support students from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds excel in higher education. In addition to implementing student-centered interventions designed to address issues related to inequity in education, Dr. Tibbetts has a distinct focus on leveraging research to create more motivationally supportive learning contexts, particularly for students from historically disenfranchised backgrounds. His latest publications explicate what factors support student retention in STEM disciplines and biomedical fields. He earned his PhD in social psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2017.