Dr. Jennifer Lerner holds the Thornton F. Bradshaw Professorship in Public Policy, Management and Decision Science at the Harvard Kennedy School. She is the first psychologist in the history of the Harvard Kennedy School to receive tenure. Professor Lerner also holds appointments in Harvard’s Department of Psychology and Institute for Quantitative Social Sciences.
Research: Drawing insights from psychology, economics, and neuroscience, Lerner’s research aims to improve decision making in high-stakes contexts and to expand the evidentiary base for designing policies that maximize human health, security, and wellbeing. Together with colleagues, Lerner 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 perceptions of risk, economic decisions, and attributions of responsibility. For example, she and her colleagues discovered and explained why fear and anger – although both negative emotions – exert opposing effects on the perception of risk. In other lines of research, her work aims to improve risk communication and to reduce stress within organizational settings. Published in leading scientific journals (e.g., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences), and collectively cited over 38,000 times in scholarly publications alone, Lerner’s research also regularly receives coverage in popular media outlets (e.g., NOVA; the Wall Street Journal; and The New York Times).
Selected scientific awards: In a White House ceremony, Lerner received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government to scientists and engineers in early stages of their careers. She has also received the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Faculty Early Career Development Award and the National Science Foundation’s "Sensational 60” designation. (The 60 members in this latter group were designated as the most prominent American scientists whose first grants were NSF graduate school fellowships.)
Teaching: As devoted to teaching as she is to research, Lerner enjoys helping students—from undergraduates to senior executives—deepen their understanding of decision science. She has received multiple teaching awards, including Harvard’s Innovations in Learning and Teaching (HILT) Award for curricular innovation, the Harvard Graduate Student Government’s Lectures That Last Award, and the Harvard Kennedy School’s Dinner on the Dean Award for outstanding teaching. She has also received awards for mentoring, including the Harvard Kennedy School’s Raymond Vernon Commemorative Award for mentoring junior faculty and Harvard College's Hoopes Prize for excellence in undergraduate research mentoring.
Boards and Steering Committees: Lerner serves on the board of directors for the Forecasting Research Institute; scientific advisory boards for two corporations using machine learning to improve decision-making; and the Faculty Steering Committee for Harvard’s Mind-Brain-Behavior Initiative. Previously, she served at different times on an expert panel within the National Institutes of Health, and (as a special government employee) on the advisory board for the U.S. Naval War College, and the advisory board for the U.S. Secretary of the Navy. For this latter role, providing input to the Secretary on critical matters faced by the Navy and the Marine Corps, she received the Navy’s Superior Public Service Award.
Education and employment history: Lerner received her Ph.D. in psychology from the University of California – Berkeley. After a National Institutes of Health postdoctoral fellowship at UCLA, Lerner joined the Carnegie Mellon University faculty. She served as Assistant Professor of Social and Decision Science, and later the Estella Loomis McCandless Associate Professor of Social and Decision Science. Lerner joined the Harvard faculty and received tenure in 2007. From 2018-2019 Lerner took temporary leave from Harvard to serve as the Chief Decision Scientist for the United States Navy, reporting directly to the Chief of Naval Operations.
Personal: Lerner lives in the greater Boston area with her husband; they are proud parents of a daughter in college.
Executive Education Programs
Leadership Decision Making
Courses
Academic Journal/Scholarly Articles
Book Chapters
Transparent Engagement
Harvard Kennedy School is proud of its energetic involvement in the world. To better understand how to solve public problems by improving policy and leadership, we engage directly with policymakers, public leaders, governments, nonprofit organizations, and for-profit businesses whose activities affect those problems. However, we recognize that such engagement can raise questions about perceived and potential conflicts of interest, so we disclose publicly the key professional activities of our faculty outside the Kennedy School. The activities disclosed below are for the most recent reporting period, as defined by University policy. Some may be paid, some may be unpaid, and others may be in exchange for expense reimbursement only.
Outside Professional Activities For Jennifer Lerner
| Organization | Relationship |
|---|---|
| Accolade Inc. | Membership on a scientific or other advisory board |
| Flatter Inc. | Consulting |
| OnCorps Inc. | Membership on a scientific or other advisory board |
| Alliance for Decision Education | Membership on a scientific or other advisory board |
| Forecasting Research Institute | Membership on a scientific or other advisory board |
| Global Association of Applied Behavioral Scientists | Membership on a scientific or other advisory board |
| United States Naval War College | Membership on a scientific or other advisory board |
| Government of New South Wales | Speaking engagement, invited lecture, or presentation |
| Kinglead Research | Consulting |