Emma Seppälä

EMMA SEPPÄLÄ, Ph.D is Science Director of Stanford University’s Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education and author of The Happiness Track (HarperOne, 2016). She is the founder and editor-in-chief of Fulfillment Daily, a news site dedicated to the science of happiness. She is a frequent contributor to Harvard Business Review, Psychology Today and Scientific American Mind. Her areas of research include positive organizational psychology, health psychology, cultural psychology, well-being, and resilience. She also consults with Fortune 500 leaders and employees on building a positive organization.
Dr. Seppala’s research and book has been cited in numerous television and news outlets including ABC News and The New York Times and in books such as Amy Cuddy’s Presence and Congressman Tim Ryan’s Mindful Nation. Her research on mind-body interventions for military veterans returning from war in Iraq and Afghanistan was highlighted in a documentary called Free the Mind by award-winning filmmaker Phie Ambo. She is the recipient of a number of research grants and service awards including the James W. Lyons Award from Stanford University, where she helped found Stanford’s first academic class on the psychology of happiness and taught many well-being programs for Stanford students.
She received a B.A in Comparative Literature from Yale University, a Master’s Degree in East Asian Languages and Cultures from Columbia University, and a Ph.D. in Psychology from Stanford University. She completed her postdoctoral studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Originally from Paris, France, she speaks five languages: French, English, German, Spanish and Mandarin Chinese. Outside of her experiences in the US, she has worked in France and China.