Jim Coan

Dr. Jim Coan is Professor of Psychology and Director of the Virginia Affective Neuroscience Laboratory at the University of Virginia. An entertaining speaker, he brings cutting edge insights to business and research audiences around the world, and has consulted to diverse groups that include clinicians, businesses and research teams.

Dr. Coan’s recent work focuses on the neural systems that underlie emotion and emotion regulation during challenging conversations. A co-editor of the Handbook of Emotion Elicitation and Assessment and author of more than eighty peer-reviewed articles, his work has been covered in Science, Nature, the New York Times, The Washington Post, Time Magazine, the New Yorker, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, BBC News, The Discovery Channel, and other major media outlets. His groundbreaking research with John Gottman on predicting divorce was featured in Malcolm Gladwell’s best-seller, Blink.

Dr. Coan received the inaugural Janet Taylor Spence Award for Transformative Early Career Contributions from the Association for Psychological Science, and the Award for Distinguished Early Career Contributions from the Society for Psychophysiological Research. He has appeared as an expert for several episodes of National Geographic’s Brain Games, is a fellow of the Mind and Life Institute, produces the podcast Circle of Willis.

Jim Coan is many things, all wrapped up into one fabulously nice guy! He is a brilliant and accomplished researcher, a compassionate and skilled clinician, a masterful storyteller, and an inspiring educator. At every conference where I’ve had the honor to be on the faculty with Jim, I’ve been deeply impressed by his capacity to make complex information accessible, fascinating and useful. Audiences love his sense of humor, humanity, and humility. He is a gem of a teacher from whom I always learn something new and come away feeling eager to learn more.

Daniel J. Siegel, M.D., Clinical Professor, UCLA School of Medicine – Executive Director, Mindisght Institute

Jim Coan has been a speaker in the Negotiation and Persuasion Workshops we organize at Harvard for business executives from Latin American countries. Speaking on nonverbal behavior, physiology and brain function (in the context of interpersonal conflict resolution), he received one of the best evaluations for the entire program. I would strongly recommend his lively and profound presentations on the science of reading emotions.

Eduardo Moane, Executive Director Cambridge International Consulting Perú