Who We AreAbout Greater Good

Meet the editors, writers, and others who bring Greater Good to life. For a more complete listing, visit the Greater Good Science Center's staff page.

Zaid Jilani

Zaid Jilani is Greater Good‘s Bridging Differences Writing Fellow. A journalist originally from Atlanta, he has worked as a reporter for The…
Maryam Abdullah

Maryam Abdullah, Ph.D., is the Parenting Program Director of the Greater Good Science Center. She is a developmental psychologist with…
Summer Allen

Summer Allen, Ph.D., is a Research/Writing Fellow with the Greater Good Science Center. A graduate of Carleton College and Brown University,…
Amy L. Eva

Amy L. Eva, Ph.D., is the associate education director at the Greater Good Science Center. She writes for the center’s online magazine,…
Mariah Flynn

Mariah Flynn is the Education Program Coordinator for the Greater Good Science Center and provides administrative support for GGSC education…
Shuka Kalantari

Shuka Kalantari produces the GGSC’s Science of Happiness podcast, in partnership with Public Radio International. Her background is in public…
Dacher Keltner

Dacher Keltner, Ph.D., is the founding director of the Greater Good Science Center and a professor of psychology at the University of…
Jason Marsh

Jason Marsh is the founding editor in chief of Greater Good and the GGSC’s director of programs. He is also a co-editor of two anthologies of…
Kira M. Newman

Kira M. Newman writes, edits, and produces content for all of the Greater Good Science Center’s websites, from the magazine to Greater Good…
Jane Park

Jane Park is the Executive Producer at the Greater Good Science Center. She produces video for the center’s online magazine and the center’s…
Emiliana R. Simon-Thomas

Emiliana R. Simon-Thomas, Ph.D., is the science director of the Greater Good Science Center, where she oversees the GGSC’s fellowship…
Jeremy Adam Smith

Jeremy Adam Smith edits the GGSC’s online magazine, Greater Good, and helps launch new products like Thnx4.org and Greater Good in Action. He…
Jill Suttie

Jill Suttie, Psy.D., is Greater Good’s book review editor and a frequent contributor to the magazine.
Vicki Zakrzewski

Vicki Zakrzewski (zahk-shef-skee), Ph.D., is the education director of the Greater Good Science Center.

In her role as education director,…

Carolyn P. Cowan

Carolyn Pape Cowan, Ph.D., is an adjunct professor of psychology, emerita, at the University of California, Berkeley. She co-directed and…
Diana Divecha

Diana Divecha, Ph.D., is a developmental psychologist, an assistant clinical professor at the Yale Child Study Center and Yale Center for…
Paul Ekman

Paul Ekman, Ph.D., is the world’s foremost expert on facial expressions and a professor emeritus of psychology at the University of…
Robert Emmons

Robert A. Emmons, Ph.D., is the world’s leading scientific expert on gratitude. He is a professor of psychology at the University of…
Matt Killingsworth

Matt Killingsworth, Ph.D., is a Robert Wood Johnson Health and Society Scholar. He studies the nature and causes of human happiness, and is…
Fred Luskin

Fred Luskin, Ph.D., is the director of the Stanford University Forgiveness Projects, a senior consultant in health promotion at Stanford…
Sonja Lyubomirsky

Sonja Lyubomirsky, Ph.D., is professor of psychology at UC Riverside and the author of the best-selling books The How of Happiness and The…
Nipun Mehta

Nipun Mehta is the founder of ServiceSpace (formerly CharityFocus), an incubator of projects that works at the intersection of volunteerism,…
Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton

Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton is an associate professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, and the co-editor of the Greater…
Kristin Neff

Kristin Neff, Ph.D., is an associate professor in human development and culture at the University of Texas, Austin, and the author of
Daniel Siegel

Dan Siegel, M.D., is a clinical professor of psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine and the founding co-director of the Mindful Awareness…
Frans de Waal

Frans B. M. de Waal, Ph.D., a Dutch-born primatologist, is the C. H. Candler Professor at Emory University and director of the Living Links…
Robb Willer

Robb Willer, Ph.D., is a professor of sociology, psychology (by courtesy), and organizational behavior (by courtesy) at Stanford University.…

Yasmin Anwar

Yasmin Anwar is a Media Relations Representative at UC Berkeley.
Giacomo Bono

Giacomo Bono, Ph.D., is an assistant professor at California State University, Dominguez Hills, who studies positive youth development with…
Allison Briscoe-Smith

Allison Briscoe-Smith, Ph.D., is a former Greater Good Science Center Graduate Fellow who is now a psychologist and assistant professor at…
Christine Carter

Christine Carter, Ph.D. is a Senior Fellow at the Greater Good Science Center. She is the author of The New Adolescence: Raising Happy and…
Patrick Cook-Deegan

Patrick Cook-Deegan is the founder and director of Project Wayfinder. Patrick was a 2015-2016 education innovation fellow at Stanford’s…
Robert Emmons

Robert A. Emmons, Ph.D., is the world’s leading scientific expert on gratitude. He is a professor of psychology at the University of…
Barbara Fredrickson

Barbara Fredrickson, Ph.D., is the Kenan Distinguished Professor of Psychology and the principal investigator of the Positive Emotions and…
Daniel Goleman

Daniel Goleman, Ph.D., is the author of the bestsellers Emotional Intelligence, Social Intelligence, and Focus: The Hidden Driver of…
Amie M. Gordon

Amie M. Gordon, Ph.D., is a social-personality psychologist who takes a dynamic, dyadic approach to investigating the affective,…
Sophie H. Janicke

Sophie H. Janicke, Ph.D., is a positive media psychologist, now an assistant professor in media psychology at Chapman University, who…
Jon Kabat-Zinn

Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D., is a professor of medicine emeritus and founding director of the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction program in the…
Roman Krznaric

Roman Krznaric, Ph.D., is a founding faculty member of The School of Life in London and empathy advisor to organizations including Oxfam and…
Sonja Lyubomirsky

Sonja Lyubomirsky, Ph.D., is professor of psychology at UC Riverside and the author of the best-selling books The How of Happiness and The…
Rhonda Magee

Rhonda Magee, JD, is Professor of Law at the University of San Francisco. She is also Chair of the Board of the Center for Contemplative Mind…
Kelly McGonigal

Kelly McGonigal, Ph.D., is a health psychologist who specializes in understanding the mind-body connection. She is the best-selling author of…
Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton

Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton is an associate professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, and the co-editor of the Greater…
Jenara Nerenberg

Jenara Nerenberg lectures widely on neuroscience, innovation, sensitivity, leadership, and diversity and is the author of the forthcoming…
Emma Seppala

Emma Seppälä, Ph.D., is science director of Stanford University’s Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education and the…
Daniel Siegel

Dan Siegel, M.D., is a clinical professor of psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine and the founding co-director of the Mindful Awareness…
Elizabeth Svoboda

Elizabeth Svoboda is a writer in San Jose, CA, and a regular contributor to Greater Good. She is the author of What Makes a Hero?: The…
Frans de Waal

Frans B. M. de Waal, Ph.D., a Dutch-born primatologist, is the C. H. Candler Professor at Emory University and director of the Living Links…