Geoffrey Cohen, Ph.D.

Geoff Cohen is James G. March Professor of Education and Professor of Psychology at Stanford University, with a courtesy appointment in the Stanford Graduate School of Business. At Stanford, Dr. Cohen directs CohenLab, a research team devoted to identifying science-based strategies for boosting human potential.

Dr. Cohen’s award-winning research has been published in leading journals including Science, Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences, and Psychological Science, and has received major funding from, among others, the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the Spencer Foundation. His work has also been featured in popular media outlets such as the New York Times Magazine, New Yorker, The Atlantic, NPR, and Psychology Today and in popular and bestselling books including Paul Tough’s How Children Learn and Angela Duckworth’s Grit.

Dr. Cohen’s solution-oriented research has led to active consulting in the non-profit and private sector. He has consulted for organizations including the World Bank, the Gates Foundation, the British and Danish governments, health care companies such Kaiser, Denver Health, the Stanford Medical Center, helped a leading Silicon Valley technology company devise “belonging” strategies to retain their female employees; given workshops to entrepreneurs in China; and is currently developing “best practices” for cultivating positive mindsets in employees, patients, and students through workshops and customized mobile technology applications.

His book, Belonging, drawing on Dr. Cohen’s influential research on “belonging uncertainty” to offer insights and strategies for creating lasting positive change in our divided world, is coming out with W.W. Norton in September 2022.