Mary Helen Immordino-Yang Ed.D.

Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, Ed.D., Harvard University, is the Fahmy and Donna Attallah Professor of Humanistic Psychology at the University of Southern California and founding director of the USC Center for Affective Neuroscience, Development, Learning and Education.

Her work pairs in-depth qualitative interviews with longitudinal brain imaging and psychophysiological recording to reveal the coordinated mental, neural, and bodily processes by which adolescents and their teachers build meaning—deliberating on the abstract, systems-level, and ethical implications of complex information, social situations, and identities. Her research underscores the active role youth play in their own brain and psychosocial development through the narratives they construct, and the capacities teachers can cultivate to support student belonging and deep learning. She conducts her work in partnership with expert educators and diverse youth from the low-SES communities where she works. She writes and speaks extensively on the implications of redesigning schools around curiosity and civic reasoning to promote intellectual vibrance and thriving.

She has received numerous awards for her research and impact on society, including from the AAAS, the PNAS editorial board, the AERA, APS, FABBS, IMBES, the U.S. Army, and others. She served on the National Academies committee, writing How People Learn II, as a distinguished scientist on the Aspen Institute’s National Commission on Social, Emotional, and Academic Development, and was a Spencer Foundation mid-career fellow.