Dr. Mary Murphy

Dr. Mary Murphy is a Herman B. Wells Endowed Professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Indiana University, founding Director of the Summer Institute on Diversity at the Center for Advanced Study in Behavioural Sciences at Stanford University, and founder and CEO of the Equity Accelerator: a research and consulting organization that works with schools and companies to create more equitable learning and working environments through social and behavioural science.

Dr. Murphy conducts pioneering research on motivation, performance, and intergroup relations in educational and organizational settings, illuminating the structures and situational cues that influence people’s motivation and achievement. In particular, she examines the role of mindset in companies’ organizational culture, employee engagement and performance, and diversity, equity, and inclusion. She teaches undergraduates, graduate students, and executives and advises CEOs and leaders on how to create more inclusive growth-minded learning and working environments.

The protégé of growth mindset pioneer Carol Dweck and author of the hotly anticipated book, Cultures of Growth, Dr. Murphy demonstrates how you can change the environment and help your teams become more innovative, more collaborative, more willing to take risks, and more able to benefit from diverse perspectives. In her groundbreaking original research, she investigates the differences between “Cultures of Genius” and “Cultures of Growth.” Revealing not only how to recognize these two different kinds of environments, but also how to move your organization towards an environment where everyone is empowered to make a valuable contribution. She offers practical exercises and strategies that anyone can use, drawn from her work with Fortune 500 companies, startups, and schools.

Dr. Murphy is Latina-born and raised in San Antonio, Texas. She earned a B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin and a Ph.D. from Stanford University. She completed a National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellowship at Northwestern University. In 2012, she joined the faculty of Indiana University and, in 2013, was named a Rising Star by the Association for Psychological Science. In 2019, she was awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers — the highest honour bestowed on early career scientists by the United States Government. She is the recipient of more than $8 million in federal and foundation grants including a recent $2.2 million National Science Foundation Career award for her research on strategies to improve diversity in STEM organizations. Her research has been profiled in The New York Times, Forbes, Harvard Business Review, Scientific American, Chronicle of Higher Education, and NPR, among other outlets.