Marc A. Brackett

Marc Brackett, Ph.D., is the founding director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and a professor in the Child Study Center, Yale School of Medicine. As a researcher for over 25 years, Marc has focused on the role of emotions and emotional intelligence in learning, decision making, creativity, relationships, health, and performance. Marc is the author of the bestselling book, Permission To Feel, which has been translated into 22 languages. Most recently, with Pinterest co-founder Ben Silbermann, Marc and his team co-created HowWeFeel, a free Apple award-winning app designed to teach emotion skills and enhance well-being.

Marc has published over 150 scholarly articles and has received numerous awards, including the Joseph E. Zins Award for his research on social and emotional learning and an honorary doctorate from Manhattanville College. He is on the board of directors of the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), on the program board of the Mental Health Coalition, founded by Kenneth Cole, and is a member of the Rare Beauty Mental Health Council, founded by Selena Gomez. He also is featured regularly in popular media outlets such as the New York Times, Good Morning America, CBS This Morning, and The Today Show.

Marc is the lead developer of RULER, a systemic, evidence-based approach to social and emotional learning that has been adopted by over 4,500 schools reaching over 4M children across the United States and in 27 other countries, including Australia, China, England, Italy, Mexico, and Spain. RULER infuses social and emotion learning into the immune system of schools by enhancing how school administrators lead, educators teach, students learn, and families parent. Research shows that RULER boosts academic performance, decreases school problems like bullying, enriches classroom climates, reduces teacher stress and burnout, and enhances teacher instructional practices.

Marc regularly consults with large companies such as Google, Amazon, Pinterest, and Microsoft on best practices for integrating the principles of emotional intelligence into training and product design. He is co-founder of Oji Life Lab, a corporate learning firm that develops innovative digital learning systems for emotional intelligence. Marc also holds a 5th degree black belt in Hapkido, a Korean martial art.

Marc’s mission is to educate the world about the value of emotions and the skills associated with using them wisely. “I want everyone to become an emotion scientist”, he says. “We need to be curious explorers of our own and others’ emotions so they can help us achieve our goals and improve our lives.”