Dr. Rebecca Peabody

Dr. Rebecca Peabody is an award-winning author, coach, and motivational speaker – and an expert on the power of storytelling to change lives and shape human psychology.

She has worked in higher education for over fifteen years, specializing in graduate student professionalization, progress and completion strategies, work/life balance, and preparation for job markets within and beyond academia. She is a passionate advocate for academic entrepreneurialism, and for women balancing family commitments and careers at all life stages.

Peabody has worked with students one-on-one to achieve their professional goals, and with departments, universities, and organizations that are engaged in rethinking graduate education in the humanities. Rebecca draws on her own experience as a PhD student at Yale University, as well as her career since – which has included both academic and non-academic positions. In addition to her work at the Getty Research Institute, where she is head of research projects and academic outreach, she has taught at Yale University, the University of Santa Barbara, the University of Southern California, and Loyola Marymount University. She has led workshops, lectures, and provided consulting services for the University of Texas at Austin, the University of California at its Los Angeles, Irvine, and Riverside campuses, USC, and Yale. Her publications include The Unruly PhD: Doubts, Detours, Departures, and Other Success Stories and Consuming Stories: Kara Walker and the Imagining of American Race, along with another five edited or co-edited volumes in the fields of contemporary art and American culture.