Health: A Positive Psychology Perspective

Dr. Deborah R. Phillips was a research associate in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University and member of the Langer Lab. Her work focuses on learning-based cognitive methodologies in health and business applications, with research on cognitive mindfulness-based interventions in chronic illness, specifically in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), multiple sclerosis (MS), Parkinson's disease, and mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease. Interventions include developing and testing web-based interventions and the use of psychosocial placebo interventions for clinical (for example, ALS) and non-clinical populations (for example, NASA). She focuses on identifying potential areas for innovation in organizational contexts and understanding the role of mindfulness in executive management and interpersonal engagement in public companies, nonprofits, and foundations. Before Harvard, Phillips' management experience was in large foundations, multinational for-profit companies, and consulting firms. She served as Executive Vice President (EVP) of the Atlantic Philanthropies, a $5 billion foundation started by duty-free shops founder Chuck Feeney focusing on capacity building and advocacy for marginalized groups. As EVP and Chief Operating Officer, she oversaw the internal operating units of strategic learning and organization development, communications, information technology (IT), human resources (HR), finance, and legal. During her tenure, she led the creation of interfacing systems, processes, and departments that were considered essential to Atlantic's maturation as one of the world's largest philanthropies. She developed the communications department, led strategic learning, and joined them with finance, legal, HR, and IT into a global group services unit, introducing a fully integrated infrastructure. She was the key senior management member to oversee board governance with the Chief Executive Officer.