Emma Seppälä’s areas of expertise are positive leadership, emotional intelligence, well-being and social connection. She is the Faculty Director of the Yale School of Management’s Women’s Leadership Program and is the bestselling author of The Happiness Track (2017) and Sovereign (2024). Seppälä advises leaders on how to build a positive organization and is a frequent contributor to Harvard Business Review, the Washington Post, and Psychology Today.
A repeat guest on Good Morning America, Seppälä’s work and research have been featured in top media and television outlets like The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, NPR, The Boston Globe, ABC News and CBS News. Her research on yoga-based breathing for military veterans returning from war in Iraq and Afghanistan was highlighted in the documentary Free the Mind. She is also featured in a number of other documentaries like The Altruism Revolution and What You Do Matters.
Seppälä is the recipient of a number of research grants and service awards including the James W. Lyons Award from Stanford University for founding Stanford’s first academic class on the psychology of happiness and launching well-being programming for Stanford students.
She graduated from Yale (BA), Columbia (MA), and Stanford (PhD). Originally from Paris, France, she is a native speaker of French, English, and German and conversant in Spanish and Mandarin Chinese.
You can find her at www.emmaseppala.com and www.iamsov.com.
