Dr. Kristen Lee

Best-Selling Author, Behavioral Science Expert, Award-Winning Educator, Psychotherapist & Comedian

Dr. Kristen Lee

Best-Selling Author, Behavioral Science Expert, Award-Winning Educator, Psychotherapist & Comedian

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Biography

When you bring a speaker into your group or organization, you want someone who inspires action. Humans learn best through humor and connection. The last thing you need is death by PowerPoint, or someone who’s disconnected from everyday demands and realities. You need the right blend of science and story that inspires action. Dr. Kris delivers an energetic, relatable, high-impact message based on over twenty-two years as a clinician, educator, and human resilience researcher to spur on positive behavioral change. Dr. Kristen Lee, Ed.D., LICSW, (she/they) known as “Dr. Kris”, is an internationally recognized, award-winning behavioral science professor, clinician, author, activist, and comedian from Boston, Massachusetts and Providence, Rhode Island.

As the Lead Faculty for Behavioral Science and Faculty-in-Residence at Northeastern University, Dr. Kris’s research and teaching interests include individual and organizational well-being and resilience, particularly for marginalized and underserved populations. Dr. Kris works with organizations and leaders around the world on how to use the science of behavioral change and human potential to build healthy mental health cultures that help prevent burnout and promote organizational and human sustainability.

Dr. Kris is the author of RESET: Make the Most of Your Stress, Winner of the Next Generation Indie Book Awards Motivational Book of 2015, best-selling Mentalligence: A New Psychology of Thinking, and Worth the Risk: Learn How to Microdose Bravery to Grow Resilience, Connect More and Offer Yourself to the World, a 2022 Next Big Idea Club nominee. She is the Host of Crackin’ Up: Where Therapy Meets Comedy. Dr. Kris is a regular contributor for Thrive Global and Psychology Today. Her work has been featured on NPR, Fast Company, Forbes, TED, and CBS radio. Her Ted X Talk, The Risk You Must Take has over 426K views.

Dr. Kris is a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker known for her advocacy in promoting increased mental health integration in social policies and institutions to facilitate access and improved health outcomes in the U.S. and across the globe. She has served at as a U.S. federal grant reviewer for the Departments of Minority Affairs, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration, and Health and Human Services. She is a member of the National Association of Social Workers and the American Psychological Association. She holds a BS from Worcester State University, MSW from Boston University and an Ed.D. from Northeastern University. In 2011, Dr. Kris was the recipient of an Excellence in Teaching Award from Northeastern University for her “depth of knowledge” and “engaging teaching style”. In 2015, she was honored with the Distinguished Professional Achievement Award from Worcester State University as “a leader who lives by the highest intellectual and ethical standards”.

Dr. Kris’s signature ability to engage with a diverse range of audiences has led her to be invited to speak nationally and internationally to students, educators, health and mental health professionals, business leaders, and general audiences. Her knowledge relates not only to her professional expertise, but her lived experience with anxiety and burnout.

Speaker Videos

An Opportunity to Respond, Change, and Save Lives

The Risk You Must Take | Dr. Kristen Lee | TEDxOcala

You Can Teach Through Humor

Speech Topics

Adopting a Healthy Mental Health Culture: Cultivating Resilience Within Today’s Complex Educational Arenas

The global and campus mental health crisis is bearing down on educators, leaders, and students alike. Today’s times call for innovative strategies to respond to a wide range of learners during stressful, traumatic times. Institutions can seize opportunities to support students to cultivate resilience that helps sustain them in their academic, professional, and personal pursuits. The science of human flourishing reveals that aligning values with behavior can lead to better individual and collective outcomes. This keynote provides a “double dip” toolbox of interactive, practical, evidence-based strategies to cultivate resilience and a build a culture of connection and positive impact.

Building Psychological Safety at Work

In the era of global mental health crisis, institutions, companies, and organizations are grappling with how to tend to the human needs and hand, while meeting outcomes and demands. Learn to apply principles of behavioral science to create a high-trust culture that inspires leaders and their employees to thrive and build resilience in today’s intensive landscape.

Burnout Prevention & Retention Strategies During Crisis & The Great Resignation

In this Age of Burnout and The Great Resignation, leaders and employees need tangible ways to optimize work environments that foster resilience, camaraderie, psychological safety, and trust. Learn evidence-based habits, mindsets, and practices to help create organizational cultures that strive to protect against the risk of burnout, exhaustion, and overstimulation, while optimizing talent, strengths, and resources for individual and collective well-being.

The Science of Mindfulness

Within this “Age of Anxiety”, the pressure to hyper-perform and jump through endless hoops is taking its toll. Mindfulness has surged in popularity, but what exactly does it offer? Beyond the hype, learn how to apply the science of mindfulness to reduce anxiety to stay well and do well. From coping with the pandemic, to overcoming technology overload, to dismantling perfectionism and deficit thinking, this interactive session offers practical strategies to help you relieve stress, and develop mindsets and habits that help you build agility and resilience at work, school, home and beyond.

Crackin’ Up with Dr. Kris: Where Therapy Meets Comedy

If laughter is the medicine, let Dr. Kris and special guest comedians bring a one-of-a-kind therapy session meets comedy show experience to your organization. Build community, team work, and spread some cheer at a time where we need joy, not fear, germs, or frustrations to be contagious.

Testimonials

"Every chapter is a therapy session that teaches in elegant but easily understandable language several logical but pragmatic strategies to increase your resilience. And once you start reading this book, you can't put it down..."

- Former President American Psychiatric Association

“Lee’s fusion of neuroscience and humanity is compelling and timely… a bold blend of science, story, humor, and wisdom that helps us reimagine fear and embody courage, creativity, and positive contribution…A must-read for anyone wanting to shine brighter without burning out.”

- Scott Barry Kaufman, Ph.D., Host of The Psychology Podcast

“Lee’s voice and the book’s structure will be useful to readers looking for a leg up…A well-written, sensible self-help guide.”

- Kirkus Reviews

“Dr. Kris is an engaging, interesting speaker who did a great job combining informative “lecture” on the psychology of stress and self-care, with interactive discussion…I walked away with concrete strategies I can use to manage my stress and sustainability in my work…”

- Harvard Kennedy School participant

“Simply phenomenal—passionate, practical, interactive, relatable…she has the ability to connect with the audience and touch each person individually, and she is empowering, intelligent and persuasive—I can envision her as a role model for many…”

- Harvard Mental Health and Education Participant