Valerie Purdie Greenaway

Dr. Valerie Purdie-Greenaway is an American social psychologist and professor of psychology at Columbia University, where she also serves as special advisor to the executive vice president for Arts and Sciences. Purdie-Greenaway is among the first African Americans to receive tenure in the academic sciences at Columbia University and is credited with coining the term "intersectional invisibility." She previously served on the faculty at Yale University and completed her doctoral work in psychology at Stanford University. After completing her undergraduate studies at Columbia, she worked at the I Have A Dream Foundation, focusing on summer camp programs and mentoring for underserved third-grade students.

Purdie-Greenaway's research in social psychology examines how structural and social factors shape human performance, decision-making, and trust. Her work integrates experimental methods and big-data analytics to explore how identity and social context influence behavior in organizations, classrooms, and society. She investigates how stereotypes about women, minorities, and other diverse groups can undermine performance and develops interventions to mitigate stereotype-related stress. Purdie-Greenaway directs the Laboratory of Intergroup Relations and the Social Mind, a research group studying psychological and structural forces behind insider/outsider dynamics across various social groups.

Purdie-Greenaway has published more than 65 peer-reviewed articles in journals including Science, Science Advances, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and Psychological Science. Her research has received support from the National Science Foundation, the Russell Sage Foundation, the Blue Dot Foundation, and the Spencer Foundation. She has received the Columbia University Lenfest Award for teaching and mentoring, as well as the Columbia University RISE award for innovative research, including her "Cells to Society" approach to reducing racial achievement gaps.

At Columbia Business School, Purdie-Greenaway teaches Inclusive Leadership in Organizations and Managerial Negotiations, integrating scientific evidence with practical frameworks for leadership and influence across differences. She also serves as an executive coach and workshop facilitator, advising organizations in the corporate, nonprofit, and government sectors on leadership development and evidence-based inclusion strategies. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, Fortune, Forbes, The Atlantic, Scientific American, and TED. Through her research, teaching, and consulting, Purdie-Greenaway contributes to the fields of diversity, identity, and the science of human performance.