Ellen Galinsky

Ellen Galinsky is the President of Families and Work Institute (FWI), an organization she co-founded in 1989. She is the elected President of the Work and Family Researchers Network, a network of several thousand researchers globally. Additionally, she serves as a senior advisor to the Immediate Office of the Assistant Secretary of Youth Mental Health at the Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and as senior science advisor to AASA, the School Superintendent Organization.

Between March 2016 and September 2022, she served as Chief Science Officer of the Bezos Family Foundation. Before co-founding FWI, she spent more than two decades at the Bank Street College of Education. Her research has focused on work-life, children’s development, youth voice, child-care, parent-professional relationship, and parental development. Galinsky's work is dedicated to identifying emerging societal issues, conducting research to explore them, and using the insights gained to initiate meaningful action.

Galinsky is the author of "Mind in the Making," a best-selling book on early learning that the New York Times described as “an iconic parenting manual,” and Judy Woodruff of the PBS NewsHour named “must reading for everyone who cares about America’s fate in the 21st Century.” Her forthcoming book on adolescent development, "The Breakthrough Years," set to be published in early 2024, encompasses nine years of research, including three original studies. Additionally, her contributions to literature include over 90 books/reports and 360 articles.

Other notable achievements in her career include being elected as a fellow of the National Academy of Human Resources, the highest honor in human resources, and receiving the 2022 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Work and Family Researchers Network. In 2023, Women’s eNews recognized her as one of the 21 Leaders for the 21st Century. She has previously served as the elected President of the National Association for the Education of Young Children and as parent expert in the Mister Rogers Talks with Parents series.