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.
  • Maryam Abdullah

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

  • Amy L. Eva

    Amy L. Eva, Ph.D., is the associate education director at the Greater Good Science Center. As an educational psychologist and teacher…

  • 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 is executive producer of audio for podcasts at Greater Good, including The Science of Happiness podcast, in partnership with…

  • 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 executive director. He is also a co-editor of two anthologies of…

  • Kira M. Newman

    Kira M. Newman is the managing editor of Greater Good. She writes, edits, and produces content for all of the Greater Good Science Center’s…

  • Emiliana R. Simon-Thomas

    Emiliana R. Simon-Thomas, Ph.D., is the science director of the Greater Good Science Center, where she directs the GGSC’s research 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.…

  • Jill Suttie

    Jill Suttie, Psy.D., is Greater Good’s former book review editor and now serves as a staff writer and contributing editor for 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 educational psychology at the University of Texas, Austin. She is 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 associate professor at California State University, Dominguez Hills, who studies positive youth development with…

  • Allison Briscoe-Smith

    Allison Briscoe-Smith, Ph.D., is a senior fellow of the Greater Good Science Center and the co-instructor of the GGSC’s Bridging Differences…

  • 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 working as an associate professor at Chapman University, who investigates the role…

  • 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 is the author of the acclaimed book Divergent Mind, which was hailed by Library Journal as “extraordinary, jaw-dropping,”…

  • 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…