Professor Dr. Maryam Hamedani

Biography

MarYam Hamedani is a social psychologist with extensive experience leading centers and teams in higher education. Her research focuses on developing and implementing strategies to help individuals thrive in an increasingly diverse and divided world. She specializes in harnessing the power of culture to support organizational and societal change, challenging cultural defaults that lead to bias and inequality. Hamedani's work has been published in peer-reviewed journals and has garnered attention from national media outlets, supported by leading foundations. She serves as the Executive Director and Senior Research Scientist at Stanford SPARQ, where she oversees the center's team and projects, collaborating with practitioners across various fields such as criminal justice, education, and health to leverage behavioral science insights for driving change. Hamedani prioritizes research grounded in society's pressing problems, creating opportunities for researchers and practitioners to engage in mutually beneficial partnerships. Her roles have included Associate Director for both the Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity (CCSRE) and the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education (SCOPE). She received her Ph.D. in Social Psychology from Stanford University.

Research Interests

Experience