Dr. Steele received her B.A. in psychology (1995) as well as her B.Ed. (1996) 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 Masters in Education in 1997 and proceeded into the doctoral program in Social Psychology. Dr. Steele completed her M.A. (1999) and her Ph.D. (2003) in Social Psychology through the Graduate School of Arts and Science 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 currently an Assistant Professor of Psychology through the Faculty of Health at York.

Dr. Steele's research interests focus primarily on stereotyping and interpersonal expectancies. One main line of research that is being pursued in the IPSC lab examines the effect of gender and racial primes and interpersonal interactions on people's attitudes, evaluations, and behavior. Another line of research examines stereotype development and implicit social cognition among minority children.