Amy Cuddy

Early life

Amy Cuddy was born on July 23, 1972. She grew up in Robesonia, Pennsylvania, where she graduated from Conrad Weiser High School in 1990. Cuddy earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology from the University of Colorado in 1998, graduating magna cum laude. While in college, she experienced a traumatic brain injury, but despite this, she made the decision to continue her education, attending the University of Massachusetts-Amherst between 1998 and 2000. She then transferred to Princeton University in order to be with her long-time academic advisor. At Princeton, she earned a Master of Arts degree in 2003, then a Doctor of Philosophy degree in 2005, with her concentration being social psychology.

Career

After concluding her formal education, Dr. Amy Cuddy became an assistant professor of psychology at Rutgers University. She went on to teach at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, focusing on leadership in organizations, while also teaching research methodologies in the University’s doctoral program.

Between 2008 and 2017, Dr. Cuddy served first as an assistant professor, and then as an associate professor at Harvard Business School. She taught courses in negotiations, leadership, and power and influence. While at Harvard, Dr. Cuddy won an ‘Excellence in Teaching’ Award.

In 2012, Dr. Cuddy came to national prominence after giving a TED talk titled Your Body Language May Shape Who You Are, which as of 2023, is the second-most popular TED talk of all time according to Statista, garnering more than 68 million views on YouTube. The talk described a self-improvement technique called power posing, which she first outlined in the academic journal Psychological Science in 2010, along with colleagues Andy Yap and Dana R. Carney. The central concept of power posing is that when people stand in a posture mentally associated with being dominant or powerful, they will behave more confidently in stressful situations.

Thanks in large part to the resounding success of Your Body Language May Shape Who You Are, Dr. Amy Cuddy was labeled a ‘Game Changer’ and one of the innovators and problem-solvers changing America by Time Magazine in 2012.

In 2014, the World Economic Forum named her to its roster of ‘Young Global Leader’ honourees.

Dr. Cuddy expounded on power posing and its surrounding concepts through her 2015 self-help book Presence: Bringing Your Boldest Self to Your Biggest Challenges. The book, her first, reached The New York Times Best Seller list, peaking at the #3 position.

In 2017, she was honored as one of the BBC’s ‘100 Women’, a profile of inspiring and influential women from across the world.

Much of Dr. Amy Cuddy’s research in social psychology has been published in respected academic journals, including Psychological Science, Science, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Her work has also been showcased in popular non-academic periodicals such as The Economist, The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, and Wired. Dr. Cuddy has made several appearances on television, including The Today Show, CBS This Morning, and BBC World News. She has also served as a panel guest on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Additionally, Dr. Amy Cuddy has written material directly for The Boston Globe, The New York Times, Harvard Business Review, and CNN.

Net Worth

Unknown.