Faculty Spotlight

A Charge, A Challenge, A Vision: Iris Bohnet

In its eleventh year, Harvard Kennedy School’s Women and Public Policy Program welcomes Dr. Iris Bohnet, Professor of Public Policy, as the center’s director.

A behavioral economist who combines insights from economics and psychology, Professor Bohnet’s research focuses on decision-making and on improving decision-making in organizations and society. In particular, she analyzes the causes and consequences of trust and the role of gender and culture in negotiation and decision-making.

She recently served as a guest editor for the October 2008 issue of the Negotiation Journal focusing on gender, joint with Dr. Hannah Riley Bowles, Associate Professor of Public Policy at HKS. This is the first ever gender-focused issue of the Negotiation Journal. The articles in the special issue were inspired by a series of research conferences that Bohnet had organized in recent years and that were jointly hosted by the Women and Public Policy Program and the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School. Summaries of the articles and more information on where to obtain the October 2008 special issue is available here.

Along with co-editing this special issue and taking on the position as WAPPP’s director, Iris Bohnet wears several other prominent hats, enabling WAPPP to expand its influence and available resources within the Harvard community and beyond.  Iris is an associate director of the Harvard Laboratory for Decision Science, vice-chair of the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School, and faculty co-chair of the Kennedy School’s executive program “Global Leadership and Public Policy for the 21st Century” for the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders. She is also affiliated with the Center for Business and Government, the Center for Public Leadership, the Dubai Initiative, and the Institute for Quantitative Social Science, Harvard University. She is a member of the Global Agenda Councils on the Gender Gap and on Diversity of the World Economic Forum and serves on the board of the Graduate Institute of International Studies, Geneva, the advisory board of the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration, and a large number of academic journals focusing on economics, management, negotiation, decision analysis and law.

Professor Bohnet teaches decision-making and negotiation in degree and executive programs. In addition to teaching at Harvard, she has been engaged in the teaching, training and consulting of private and public sector leaders in the United States, Europe, India and the Middle East.

Upon assuming directorship, Professor Bohnet charged the program’s faculty, staff and students to ask, “What can the Women and Public Policy Program do to create gender equality and improve the lives of women and men throughout the world?” To answer this challenge, four focal areas have been defined at WAPPP: 1) Gender and Policy, 2) Gender in Decision Making and Negotiation, 3) Gender and Politics, and 4) Gender and Security.

“I would like for the Women and Public Policy Program to be a knowledge center in these areas. Through our research and teaching, we want to impact the world and help close the gender gaps in economic opportunity, political participation, education and health,” says Bohnet. “A better understanding of why we make certain decisions and how we can overcome the mistakes we make has never been more important than in the current economic situation. Women and men differ in how they assess and perceive risk and uncertainty; society would benefit tremendously from taking both perspectives into account.”

“We are very enthusiastic about Iris' role as director of the Women and Public Policy Program, says HKS Dean David Ellwood. "Her work as a scholar , coupled with her strong leadership skills, will benefit both WAPPP and the entire HKS community. I am very grateful that she has agreed to take on this new role."

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