Tessa West

Tessa West is a Professor of Psychology at New York University and a leading expert in the science of interpersonal communication. Her research focuses on questions such as: How can we improve communication across cultural and national divides, and what hurdles do we need to overcome to make hybrid communication work?

West received her PhD from the University of Connecticut and has published over 70 academic articles in psychology’s most prestigious journals, including Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Psychological Science, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, and Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. She has received multiple grants from the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. West has also received several career awards, including the early career award from the Foundation for Personality and Social Psychology, and the Theoretical Innovation Prize from the Foundation for Personality and Social Psychology among others.

West's work has been covered by Scientific American, the New York Times, ABC World News, TIME, the Huffington Post, The Guardian, The Globe and Mail, Bloomberg, Strategy and Business, and the US Supreme Court. She has appeared on the Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore, David McRaney’s live “You are not so smart” podcast, and the WNYC. She is a regular contributor to the Wall Street Journal.

West has worked with and delivered keynotes for Capital Group, Splunk, Make-A-Wish Foundation, Bristol-Myer Squibb, CoreLogic, Capital One, KPMG, Premise Health, HPE, Gilead, Pfizer, Relativity, Survey Monkey and more, on topics related to improving diversity inclusion practices, fostering better leadership, and improving communication more generally. She is the author of the book “Jerks at Work” on coping with toxic colleagues, published in January 2022.