Angela Duckworth is the Rosa Lee and Egbert Chang Professor at the University of Pennsylvania and faculty co-director of the Penn-Wharton Behavior Change for Good Initiative. She is also a Gallup Senior Scientist.
A 2013 MacArthur Fellow, Duckworth has advised organizations including the World Bank, NBA and NFL teams, and Fortune 500 CEOs. She is the co-founder of Character Lab, a nonprofit dedicated to advancing scientific insights that help children thrive.
Before beginning her research career, Duckworth founded a summer school for underserved children, which was later profiled as a Harvard Kennedy School case study and celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2023. She has also worked as a McKinsey management consultant and as a math and science teacher at public schools in New York City, San Francisco and Philadelphia.
Duckworth earned her undergraduate degree in advanced neurobiology studies from Harvard University, graduating magna cum laude. As a Marshall Scholar, she completed her master’s with distinction in neuroscience from Oxford University. She earned her doctoral degree in psychology as a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania.
Duckworth’s TED Talk is among the most viewed of all time, and her book Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance is a No. 1 New York Times bestseller.
Learn More