Jessica Hartnett is living proof that statistics doesn’t have to be the course everyone dreads. As an associate professor of psychology and counseling at Gannon University in Erie, Pennsylvania, she has spent well over a decade turning one of academia’s most feared subjects into something students genuinely look forward to. Between her long-running teaching blog, her textbook with W.W. Norton, and a growing shelf of national teaching honors, she has quietly become one of the most recognizable names in psychology education. So who exactly is she, what has she built, and why do teachers around the world follow her work so closely? Let’s break it all down.
Quick Bio
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Full Name | Jessica L. Hartnett |
| Commonly Known As | Jess Hartnett |
| Profession | Professor, Author, Blogger |
| Current Role | Associate Professor of Psychology and Counseling |
| Institution | Gannon University, Erie, Pennsylvania, USA |
| At Gannon Since | August 2009 |
| Ph.D. | Social/Industrial-Organizational Psychology, Northern Illinois University |
| M.A. | Social/Industrial-Organizational Psychology, Northern Illinois University (2006) |
| B.S. | Psychology, Pennsylvania State University (2001) |
| Doctoral Advisor | Dr. John Skowronski |
| Best Known For | The “Not Awful and Boring” statistics blog |
| Blog Launched | 2012 |
| Major Book | Psychological Statistics for Everyone (W.W. Norton) |
| Key Awards | APA Distinguished Scholar Lectures for Teaching (2024); STP Mentorship of Teachers Award (2023) |
| Research Interests | Teaching of statistics, informed consent, memory, affective forecasting |
One quick note before we go further: Jessica Hartnett is an educator, not a celebrity, so her personal and family life stays private — and honestly, that’s exactly how it should be. This profile focuses on her public, professional journey, which is more than interesting enough on its own.
Who Is Jessica Hartnett?
At her core, Jessica Hartnett is a teacher first. She works in Gannon University’s Department of Psychology and Counseling, where she teaches psychological statistics practically every term — the required course that most psychology majors approach with sweaty palms. Online, though, she’s better known as the voice behind “Not Awful and Boring,” a blog built on the cheerful premise that statistics can actually be entertaining. Her academic research spans the teaching of statistics, informed consent, memory, and affective forecasting, and her published work has collected more than 400 citations on Google Scholar. What makes her stand out isn’t just the résumé, though. It’s the mission behind it. She believes data literacy belongs to everyone, not just the naturally math-inclined, and nearly everything she publishes circles back to that one idea.
Education and Academic Background
Hartnett’s academic story starts at Pennsylvania State University, where she earned a B.S. in Psychology with a concentration in biological and evolutionary sciences in 2001. From there, she headed to Northern Illinois University, completing her M.A. in 2006 and then her Ph.D. in social/industrial-organizational psychology under the mentorship of Dr. John Skowronski. Her dissertation, titled “More Affect, Less Forecast,” dug into how mood shapes affective forecasting — in plain English, how our current feelings mess with our predictions about future feelings. Just as importantly, she worked as an instructor at NIU from 2003 to 2009, and those years in front of a classroom clearly left a mark. Long before the blog or the book existed, she was already experimenting with ways to make difficult material land with real, sometimes reluctant, students.
Building a Career at Gannon University
In August 2009, Hartnett joined Gannon University, a private institution in Erie, Pennsylvania, and she has been there ever since. Over the years, she rose to associate professor while carving out a very specific niche: owning the statistics course that psychology programs require and students usually fear. Rather than treating it as a box to check, she turned it into her signature. She has also invested heavily in undergraduate research mentorship, an effort that earned her Gannon’s Undergraduate Research Award in 2020. Her reputation extends well beyond campus, too. When the popular PsychSessions podcast featured her in a full-length episode, the hosts introduced her as a model of thoughtfulness, generosity, and hard work — high praise in a community full of dedicated teachers.
The “Not Awful and Boring” Blog
Back in 2012, Hartnett launched “Not Awful and Boring,” and the name tells you everything about the pitch. The blog shares free examples, datasets, news stories, and pop-culture moments that instructors can drop straight into their statistics and research methods classes. It updates roughly once a week and has built a loyal international audience of teachers who would rather show students a funny, real-world example than assign another dry textbook problem. Hartnett has also written about the blog as an open educational resource, contributing a chapter to the 2016 book “Open,” which explored how free, shareable materials are reshaping psychological science and education. In an era of painfully expensive course materials, giving away quality teaching content for over a decade is a genuinely big deal — and it’s a huge part of why so many educators trust her name.
Psychological Statistics for Everyone: The Textbook
All those years of blogging and classroom experimenting eventually grew into a full textbook. “Psychological Statistics for Everyone,” published by W.W. Norton & Company, is Hartnett’s attempt to rebuild the statistics course from the ground up. In interviews around the launch, she explained her reasoning simply: we live in a data-driven world, so students need to understand how to interpret and communicate statistics, not just grind through formulas. The book leans hard into statistical literacy, conceptual understanding, and critical thinking, delivered in the approachable, student-friendly voice you’d expect from someone who has taught the course every single term for years. Norton aimed the book squarely at math-anxious students, and the playful tone of its marketing matched her personal brand perfectly. For a professor whose entire identity is “statistics without the suffering,” the book feels like a natural milestone.
Research and Publications
While teaching is her headline act, Hartnett’s research record runs surprisingly deep. Her early work with John Skowronski centered on affective forecasting, including a notable 2010 paper in the Journal of Positive Psychology examining responses to the tragic 2008 shootings at Northern Illinois University — research suggesting that people are more resilient than they expect to be. On the teaching side, she published “Stats on the Cheap” in Teaching of Psychology in 2013, a practical guide to free and inexpensive statistics resources, and later co-authored a 2022 article on using internet memes to engage psychology students. She has contributed to multi-lab replication projects, co-authored informed consent research published in Methods in Psychology in 2020, co-wrote the book “Pollyanna’s Revenge,” and served on Society for the Teaching of Psychology committees that produced the updated statistical literacy guidelines. It’s a portfolio that blends serious science with an obvious love of the classroom.
Awards and Recognition
The recognition has stacked up steadily over the years. In 2023, the Society for the Teaching of Psychology honored her with its Mentorship of Teachers Award, a direct nod to how much energy she pours into supporting other instructors. In 2024, she received the American Psychological Association’s Distinguished Scholar Lectures for Teaching, one of the more prestigious teaching honors in the field. Add Gannon’s 2020 Undergraduate Research Award and that feature interview on PsychSessions (episode 120), and a clear picture emerges: her peers see her not merely as a good professor, but as a genuine leader in how psychology gets taught. For someone who built her platform by quietly giving resources away, the industry-wide respect feels well earned.
What Students Say About Her
As a numbers person, Hartnett would probably appreciate that her student feedback comes with data attached. At the time of writing, she holds roughly a 4.4 out of 5 rating on Rate My Professors, with 82% of reviewers saying they would take her class again — remarkable figures for a required statistics course. The recurring themes in student reviews are telling: funny, real-life examples that make abstract concepts stick, participation points that reward simply showing up and engaging, open-note exams that still make you think, and a professor who clearly cares about the people in her classroom. Not every single review is glowing, because no professor’s are, but the overall pattern is hard to argue with. Students walk away having actually learned statistics, and plenty of them admit they even enjoyed it.
Why Her Work Matters
Statistics anxiety is one of the quiet barriers in higher education. Plenty of capable students avoid entire fields, psychology included, because one intimidating course stands in the way. Hartnett’s whole career pushes back against that. By giving away teaching resources for free, she lowers costs and prep time for instructors everywhere. By centering statistical literacy over rote computation, she prepares students for a world flooded with charts, polls, claims, and misinformation. And by being open about her methods through the blog, podcast interviews, and committee work, she has nudged psychology education toward something more accessible, more generous, and more honest. That kind of influence compounds. Every teacher who borrows one of her examples passes the benefit along to another room full of students.
Conclusion
Jessica Hartnett’s story is, in a way, wonderfully unglamorous: a professor in Erie, Pennsylvania looked at a dreaded required course, decided it deserved better, and then spent nearly two decades proving the point. The blog, the textbook, the awards, and the student reviews all lead to the same conclusion — great teaching, done consistently and shared generously, adds up to real influence. Whether you’re a student about to face psychological statistics, an instructor hunting for fresh material, or simply someone curious about the people quietly shaping science education, her work is well worth your attention.
Also read: Naiia Rose Ulrich: Inside the Life of Skeet Ulrich’s Talented Daughter
FAQs
Who is Jessica Hartnett?
She is an associate professor of psychology and counseling at Gannon University in Erie, Pennsylvania, best known for making statistics education engaging and accessible.
What is the “Not Awful and Boring” blog?
It’s her long-running blog, launched in 2012, that shares free and entertaining examples, datasets, and resources for teaching statistics and research methods.
What book did Jessica Hartnett write?
Her textbook, “Psychological Statistics for Everyone,” was published by W.W. Norton & Company and focuses on statistical literacy, conceptual understanding, and critical thinking.
Where did Jessica Hartnett study?
She earned her B.S. in Psychology from Penn State, followed by an M.A. and Ph.D. in social/industrial-organizational psychology from Northern Illinois University.
What awards has Jessica Hartnett won?
Her honors include the APA’s Distinguished Scholar Lectures for Teaching (2024), the Society for the Teaching of Psychology’s Mentorship of Teachers Award (2023), and Gannon University’s Undergraduate Research Award (2020).
