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Dr. Kristen Lee, Ed.D., LICSW, known as “Dr. Kris”, is an internationally recognized, award-winning behavioral science clinician, researcher, educator, speaker, comedian, and from Boston, Massachusetts. 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-Learn What it Takes to be More Agile, Mindful and Connected in Today’s World, and Worth the Risk: How to Microdose Bravery to Grow Resilience, Connect More, and Offer Yourself to the World, a 2022 Next Big Idea Book Club nominee. She is a regular contributor for Psychology Today and Thrive Global. Dr. Kris’s work has been featured on NPR, Ted, Forbes Fast Company, and CBS radio. She is the host of Crackin’ Up: Where Therapy Meets Comedy.
Dr. Kris’s work has been featured on NPR, Ted, and CBS radio. Her Ted X talk, The Risk You Must Take has over 423K views. Her 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. Some of the venues she speaks at include Harvard University, Harvard Medical School, Nationwide, Snapchat, American Chemical Society, Virgin Pulse, and Johnson and Johnson.
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”. In addition to her professional expertise, Dr. Kris walks her talk as a person with a lived experience with anxiety and depression.
Speaking Topics -
Adopting a Healthy Mental Health Culture: Cultivating Resilience Within Today’s Complex Educational
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 and Retention Strategies During Crisis and 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.
