Amy Cuddy Profile Picture

Keynote SpeakerAmy Cuddy

Social Psychologist, Award-Winning Harvard Lecturer, and Bestselling Author

Dr. Amy Cuddy is a social psychologist, bestselling author, and keynote speaker. Her writing, research, teaching, and speaking focus on presence and performance under stress, the causes and outcomes of feeling powerful vs. powerless, prejudice and stereotyping, nonverbal behavior, the delicate balance of projecting trustworthiness and strength, and most recently,... Read more

Biography

Dr. Amy Cuddy is a social psychologist, bestselling author, and keynote speaker. Her writing, research, teaching, and speaking focus on presence and performance under stress, the causes and outcomes of feeling powerful vs. powerless, prejudice and stereotyping, nonverbal behavior, the delicate balance of projecting trustworthiness and strength, and most recently, the psychology of bullying, bystanding, and social bravery.

After earning her Ph.D. at Princeton University, she was a professor at Harvard Business School (2008-2017) and Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management (2006-2008). Throughout her academic career, she’s been honored with some of the highest commendations for both her teaching and her research, including the Excellence in Teaching Award from Harvard University and the Scientific Impact Award from the Society for Experimental Social Psychology. Her 2012 TED Talk, “Your Body Language May Shape Who You Are,” is the third-most popular of all time, with more than 72 million views. Her NYT bestseller, Presence, described in the NYT Sunday Book Review as “…concrete and inspiring, simple but ambitious – above all, truly powerful,” has sold more than half a million copies and been published in 35 languages.

In 2025, she will publish her next book, Bullies, Bystanders, & Bravehearts (HarperCollins), on the psychology of bullying among adults — and how we find the courage to stop it. She’s also an avid roller skater and skier, live-music lover (actually, a devoted Deadhead!), adventuring partner to her husband Paul, and hype mom to her son, Jonah, a guitarist, producer, songwriter and student at Berklee College of Music.

“So powerful to hear personal experiences from someone who is also so well versed in their field, and Amy just seems so down to earth and approachable. Everything she spoke about from imposter syndrome to bullying to being our best most confident version of ourselves resonated in some way.” Technology
“She was great! People were raving about her for hours! She was super easy to work with, arrived early, hung out and really did a killer job!” Real Estate
“I wanted to reach out on behalf of all of us at Automotive News to thank Amy Cuddy for a fantastic Automotive News Leading Women Conference. It was an outstanding event, with a sold-out, interested and engaged audience that really enjoyed her presentation. Words that kept popping up in relation to her and her presentation in our survey responses were “authentic,” “sincere,” “engaging,” and “real.” She knocked it out of the park. And the book signing afterwards was a huge success!” Automotive News (Publishing)
“Amy was fantastic. She was great to work with beforehand and her closing keynote was a wonderful message with several ideas our attendees can implement in their school districts. She received a well-deserved standing ovation.” Pennsylvania School Boards Association (Education)
“Amy infused our Women@Goodwin event with energy, passion and levity as she talked about presence!  She was such a gem and a pure joy to work with and was lovely to every member of our 200+ person audience – she took photos and signed books of every single person who was queued up to meet with her.  We hope to have the opportunity to work with Amy again!” Goodwin Procter (Law)

Popular Talks by Amy Cuddy

  • Personal Power & Presence: Bringing Your Boldest Self to Your Biggest Challenges
    Many of our biggest challenges call for us to be calmly confident, focused, and open to hearing others. Too often, we approach these high-pressure interactions with fear, execute with anxiety and distraction, and leave with regret. Based on her best-selling book Presence, Amy draws from psychology and neuroscience research, personal...
  • Moving Forward in the Flux Era: From Flux Syndrome to Flux Recovery
    The pandemic and concurrent economic and cultural shifts have propelled workers and leaders into a new “Flux Era.” This new and ongoing flux has created a stew of conflicting emotions — hope, fear, excitement, dispiritedness, relief, and tension. And although human beings are more resilient than we generally appreciate, this...
  • Identity and Intergroup Conflict: Exploring the Anatomy of Bias in a Divided World
    For more than twenty years, Amy Cuddy has been studying and writing about intergroup bias and the psychological underpinnings of how we judge and treat others. She breaks down who and why we envy, pity, admire, and hate. Why do we bend over backwards to help some people – while...
  • The Science and Social Impact of Bravery — and How We Can Use it to End Bullying
    Social media is a rocket fuel for our worst impulses, says Amy Cuddy, exacerbating incivility and bullying among adults both online and offline. But the same psychological mechanisms that elicit bullying – tribalism, the influence of norms, and desire for status – can just as easily be used to decrease...