“I learned about positive psychology probably 15 years ago,” begins Ukrainian psychologist Alla Klymenko (MAPP ’24). When she started reading books about the science of happiness by Penn’s Dr. Marty Seligman, she was inspired. “I can't say that I was a super happy person or positive thinker or optimist,” she shares. “That's why, when I found those books by Marty, I thought, ‘Okay, I totally need this.’ I just felt that happiness was my topic—something I would like to know more about and move forward with.”

Dr. Preston V. L. Lindsay is an organizational psychologist focused on the systemic impacts of organizational trauma. His research reveals how trauma embeds itself as patterns of dysregulation and disconnection, often driven by destructive leadership, chronic stress, and systemic oppression. By integrating systems thinking, Black feminist thought, and cognitive neuroscience, he develops human-centered interventions that promote repair, resilience, and transformation within organizations.