Center Seminar Series

The Lee Kum Sheung Center for Health and Happiness invites both Harvard and non-Harvard faculty and researchers to discuss topics related to the mission of the Center.

2022-2023: Digital Media and Well-being

The theme of the 2022-2023 seminar series is Digital Media and Well-being. For upcoming seminars, visit our Upcoming Events page.

• April 27, 2022 – Dr. Amy Orben, Group Leader at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge
  • “Applying Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience to Understand Adolescent Social Media Use and Mental Health: Pipe Dream or Near Reality?”
• September 28, 2022 – Dr. Munmun De Choudhury, Associate Professor at the School of Interactive Computing, Georgia Tech
  • “Does Social Media Support or Worsen Mental Well-Being? Well, It Depends” 
• October 26, 2022 – Dr. Sarah Coyne, Professor of Human Development in the School of Family Life at Brigham Young University
  • “Who is Most Likely to Thrive After Engaging with Social Media? A differential susceptibility approach to a complex question”
• December 7, 2022 – Dr. Ethan Kross, Professor in the University of Michigan’s Psychology Department and Ross School of Business, and director of the Emotion & Self-Control Lab
  • “Social Media & Well-Being: Pitfalls, Progress, & Next Steps”
• January 25, 2023 – Dr. César Escobar-Viera, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Director of the Program for Internet Delivered Interventions on LGBTQA+ Mental Health (Pride iM) in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
  • “Understanding and leveraging the influence of social media on mental health among LGBTQ+ people”
• April 5, 2023 – Dr. Lucía Magis-Weinberg, Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of Washington
  • “Global Perspectives on Social Media and Adolescence”

Past Seminar Series

2021–2022: Recovery and Resilience

• September 21, 2021 – Dr. Lisa Berkman, Thomas D. Cabot Professor of Public Policy, Epidemiology, and Global Health and Population at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health 
  • “The Workplace and Worker Well-Being: Work as a Social Determinant of Health”
• October 27, 2021 – Dr. Arthur C. Brooks, Professor of the Practice of Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School and Arthur C. Patterson Faculty Fellow at the Harvard Business School 
  • “Three Life Lessons from COVID-19: We Can Come Out Happier than We Went In”
• November 17, 2021 – Dr. Andrew Steptoe, Head of the Department of Behavioural Science and Health at University College London 
  • “Loneliness, Well-Being, and Resilience During and After the COVID-19 Pandemic”
• December 15, 2021 – Dr. Cindy H. Liu, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School
  • “Developmental and Generational Perspectives to Understanding COVID-19 Young Adult Mental Health”
• January 26, 2022 – Dr. Vish Viswanath, Lee Kum Kee Professor of Health Communication and Co-Director of the Lee Kum Sheung Center for Health and Happiness at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
  • “Class, Communication, and Well-Being: Analyses from a Cross-Sectional Study of Youth from Lower Socioeconomic Groups in India”
• February 23, 2022 – Dr. Kristen Nishimi, Data Science Postdoctoral Fellow in Psychology at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center and the University of California, San Francisco
  • “Psychological Resilience: Potential Implications for Physical Health”
• March 22, 2022 – Dr. Shekhar Saxena, Professor of the Practice of Global Mental Health at the Department of Global Health and Population at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
  • “Social Resilience, Hope, and Recognition in the New Gilded Age”

2020–2021: Health Equity and Positive Well-being

• September 23, 2020 – Dr. Mika Kivimäki, Professor of Epidemiology & Public Health, University College London 
  • “Social Inequalities in Physical and Psychological Health: An Update on Current Knowledge”
• October 28, 2020 – Dr. Vikram Patel, Pershing Square Professor of Global Health, Department of Global Health & Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School; Adjunct professor & Joint Director, Centre for Chronic Conditions & Injuries, Public Health Foundation of India 
  • “Transforming Mental Health in the Covid Era”
• December 2, 2020 – Dr. Cheryl Giscombé, LeVine Family Distinguished Associate Professor of Quality of Life, Health Promotion and Wellness, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Nursing
  • “HARMONY: The Development of a Culturally-Relevant, Randomized Controlled Mindfulness-Based Stress Management Intervention to Reduce Cardiometabolic Risk in African American Women” No recording available
• January 27, 2021 – Dr. Ashley Whillans, Assistant Professor in the Negotiation, Organizations & Markets Unit at Harvard Business School
  • “Alleviating Time Poverty: Evidence from a Pre-Registered Longitudinal Experiment”
• February 24, 2021 – George Ward, M.Sc., Behavioral Scientist, MIT Sloan School of Management
  • “Happiness at Work”
• March 24, 2021 – Dr. Michèle Lamont, Professor of Sociology and of African and African American Studies and the Robert I. Goldman Professor of European Studies at Harvard University 
  • “Social Resilience, Hope, and Recognition in the New Gilded Age”
• April 28, 2021 – Dr. Jennifer Prah Ruger, Amartya Sen Professor of Health Equity, Economics, and Policy at the University of Pennsylvania
  • “Applying the Health Capability Profile”
• May 19, 2021 – Dr. Carol Graham, Leo Pasvolsky Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution
  • “When Twin Public Health Crises Meet: Trends in Ill-Being and Deaths of Despair during the COVID Pandemic”

2019–2020: Resilience at the Individual, City, and Policy Level

• September 25, 2019 – Anita Chandra, DrPH, Vice President and Director of RAND Social and Economic Well-Being 
  • “Building Community Resilience: Grassroots and Grasstops”
• October 23, 2019 – Willem Kuyken, PhD, Ritblat Professor of Mindfulness and Psychological Science, Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford

  

  • “Preventing Depression Across the Lifespan with Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy”
• November 20, 2019 – George Bonanno, PhD, Professor of Clinical Psychology, Columbia University Teachers College
  • “Resilience to Loss and Trauma: What is it and why are we (usually, but not always) good at it?”
• January 22, 2020 – Karmel Choi, PhD, Clinical and Research Fellow, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Massachusetts General Hospital
  • “Psychological Resilience: What Can Genomic Approaches Teach Us?”
• February 26, 2020 – Alonzo Plough, PhD, Clinical Professor of Health Services, University of Washington School of Public Health, Vice President for Research and Evaluation and Chief Science Officer, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
  • “Moving from Disparities to Equity to Thriving: Operationalizing a Culture of Health”

2018–2019: Translation and Communication, and Biology and Well-being

• September 26, 2018 – Steve Gortmaker, PhD, Professor of the Practice of Health Sociology, Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
  • “Translating Research for Policy and Practice: the CHOICES Project and Implications for Happiness”
• October 17, 2018 – Gina McCarthy, MSc, Professor of the Practice of Public Health, Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
  • “Translating Science to Policy: Lessons from Climate Change”
• October 25, 2018 – Richard J. Davidson, PhD, William James and Vilas Research Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry, Founder and Director of the Center for Healthy Minds, University of Wisconsin-Madison

  

  • “Well-being Is a Skill”
• November 28, 2018 – David Silbersweig, MD, Chairman, Department of Psychiatry and Co-Director for Institute for the Neurosciences, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School Dean for Academic Programs at Partners HealthCare, Stanley Cobb Professor of Psychiatry, HMS
  • “Brain Systems for Resilience”
• January 23, 2019 – Eric Loucks, PhD, Associate Professor of Epidemiology, Associate Professor of Behavioral and Social Sciences, Associate Professor of Medicine, Brown University
  • “Population Health Impacts of Mindfulness: Opportunities, Evidence, and Pitfalls”
• February 27, 2019 – Winnie Yip, PhD, Professor of the Practice of International Health Policy and Economics, Department of Global Health and Population, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
  • “From Social Experiments to Policy Decisions: China’s Health Care Reform”
• March 27, 2019 – Karen Emmons, PhD, Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
  • “Building an Evidence Base that is Useful for Population Health”
• April 24, 2019 – Suzanne Segerstrom, PhD, Professor of Psychology, University of Kentucky
  • “Well-being, Immunosenescence, and the Brain”