Chesney joins St. John’s as an assistant professor of psychology. She has a Ph.D. from Rutgers University; an M.S. from Rutgers University; and a B.A. from the University of Virginia. She studies how people understand numbers and math and how to improve this understanding. Chesney researched ways to help children learn math and to help adults make better use of numerical information when they make decisions. She has also studied the basic mechanisms that let people perceive numbers and amounts in the real world, and looks for ways to leverage these mechanisms to help improve people's numerical understanding.