Jennifer S. Lerner

Jennifer S. Lerner is professor of public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and an internationally recognized expert in decision science. The first psychologist in the history of the Harvard Kennedy School to receive tenure, her work draws insights from psychology, economics and neuroscience in order to elucidate human judgment and decision making. Together with colleagues, she has developed a theoretical framework that successfully predicts the effects of specific emotions on specific judgment and choice outcomes. Applied widely, the framework has been especially useful in predicting emotion effects on decisions involving risk and valuation. The lead author in seminal research papers, Dr. Lerner has earned many prestigious awards, including the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) — the highest academic honor the US Government gives to scientists and engineers in early stages of their careers. In addition to research, Lerner is also devoted to graduate and executive-level education, founding and directing Harvard’s executive program on Leadership Decision Making.