Amy Cuddy

Dr. Amy Cuddy is a social psychologist, bestselling author, and keynote speaker. Her writing, research, teaching, and speaking focus on presence and performance under stress, the causes and outcomes of feeling powerful vs. powerless, prejudice and stereotyping, nonverbal behavior, the delicate balance of projecting trustworthiness and strength, and most recently, the psychology of bullying, bystanding, and social bravery. She asks the crucial question of how can we improve our relationships, performance, and wellbeing by harnessing our personal power and taking control of our own thoughts, feelings, and actions?

After earning her Ph.D. at Princeton University, she was a professor at Harvard Business School (2008-2017) and Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management (2006-2008). Throughout her academic career, she’s been honored with some of the highest commendations for both her teaching and her research, including the Excellence in Teaching Award from Harvard University (2018) and the Scientific Impact Award from the Society for Experimental Social Psychology (2022) for her extensive research on intergroup conflict. She continues to teach as a guest lecturer in Executive Education at Harvard Business School and at UCLA-Anderson School of Management.

Her 2012 TED Talk, “Your Body Language May Shape Who You Are,” is the second-most popular of all time, with more than 70 million views. Her NYT bestseller, Presence, described in the NYT Sunday Book Review as “…concrete and inspiring, simple but ambitious - above all, truly powerful,” has sold more than half a million copies and been published in 35 languages. In 2025, she will publish her next book, "Bullies, Bystanders, & Bravehearts" (HarperCollins), on the psychology of bullying among adults — and how we find the courage and tools to stop it. She’s also an avid roller skater and skier, live-music lover (actually, a devoted Deadhead!), adventuring partner to her husband Paul, and hype mom to her son, Jonah, a guitarist, producer, songwriter, and student at Berklee College of Music. She lives in Venice, California.