Positive Psychology Capstone: Designing for Strength

Dr. Deborah R. Phillips is a Lecturer in Extension at Harvard University, where she teaches graduate courses in psychology, health, and organizational behavior within the psychology and industrial-organizational psychology tracks at Harvard Extension School. She leads year-long capstone courses for the ALM degree in psychology and serves as a thesis director. Her instruction blends scientific research with applied frameworks in stress, decision-making, and workplace mindfulness. She has also taught undergraduate courses at Harvard College. Her research focuses on cognitive and psychological interventions that promote well-being in health care and organizational settings. As part of Professor Ellen Langer's Mindfulness Research Lab, she explores learning-based, non-meditative mindfulness, the placebo effect, and psychosocial mechanisms of resilience. These concepts inform interventions supporting both patients and caregivers, as well as decision-making in high-stakes institutional environments. Phillips was elected to Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Honor Society, in recognition of her contributions to applied psychological research and graduate instruction. Prior to academia, she spent over a decade in corporate finance and held senior executive roles in philanthropy, multinational companies, and consulting. She served as Executive Vice President and Chief Operations Officer of The Atlantic Philanthropies, a $5 billion global foundation established by Chuck Feeney. There, she led integration across communications, evaluation, legal, finance, and human resources. Her tenure is profiled in Winding Down the Atlantic Philanthropies: The First Eight Years (2001-2008) by Tony Proscio, published by Duke University. Phillips earned her PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.