Angela
Duckworth

Psychologist

Angela writes about: Psychology

Angela Duckworth is co-founder and CEO of Character Lab, a nonprofit that uses psychological science to help children thrive. She is also the Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, faculty co-director of the Penn-Wharton Behavior Change for Good Initiative, and faculty co-director of Wharton People Analytics. A 2013 MacArthur Fellow, Duckworth has advised the White House, the World Bank, NBA and NFL teams, and Fortune 500 CEOs.

She has received numerous awards for her contributions to K-12 education, including a Beyond Z Award from the KIPP Foundation. Her TED talk is among the most-viewed of all time, and her first book, Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, is a #1 New York Times bestseller.

Prior to her career in research, Duckworth founded a summer school for low-income children that was profiled as a Harvard Kennedy School case study and in 2018 celebrated its 25th anniversary. She has also been a McKinsey management consultant and a math and science teacher at public schools in New York City, San Francisco, and Philadelphia.

The kind of hope that I am talking about is believing that there is something, even a little thing, that you can do to change your future.

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