Kristen Renwick Monroe, Ph.D., is a professor of political science and philosophy at the University of California, Irvine, where she is the founder and director of the Interdisciplinary Center for the Scientific Study of Ethics and Morality and the associate director of the program in political psychology. She is the author of The Heart of Altruism, which was a Pulitzer Prize nominee, and The Hand of Compassion, which was nominated for a National Book Award. She is also a co-editor of the volume On Behalf of Others: The Psychology of Benevolence in a Global World.