CASBS Names Lara Tiedens Interim Director

Social psychologist Lara Tiedens, president of Scripps College and a former Stanford University professor, this week became interim director of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS), a behavioral and social science research center under the vice provost and dean of research at Stanford. Her one-year appointment sees Tiedens replace Sarah Soule, who left CASBS on June 15 to become dean of the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Over the next year, a committee will complete its search to identify and select a candidate for the permanent director position.

Tiedens is no stranger to CASBS. She was a CASBS fellow in residence during the 2008-09 academic year, and in 2023 started service on the center’s board of directors, where she currently co-chairs its development committee.

“CASBS has played an important and irreplaceable role in the development of the behavioral and social sciences,” a release quoted Tiedens. “I have deep admiration for the scholarly work that has been made possible by the environment at CASBS and will seek to protect and nurture that environment.”

Tiedens is a social psychologist and organizational scholar, having earned a PhD from the University of Michigan, and currently is a research affiliate with Stanford SPARQ (Social Psychological Answers to Real-World Questions). She served on the faculty of the Stanford Graduate School of Business for 18 years, the last 10 as the Jonathan B. Lovelace Professor of Organizational Behavior. Her research explores the psychological dynamics that produce and maintain interpersonal social hierarchies, the manner in which emotions influence and are influenced by social roles, and the effects of emotions on decision making.

She co-edited the 2004 book The Social Life of Emotions. In recognition of her contributions to the science of personality and social psychology, she was named a fellow of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology.

She served as the Morgan Stanley Director of Stanford Graduate School of Business’s Center for Leadership Development and Research from 2011-12, then served as the graduate school’s senior associate dean of academic Affairs from 2012-16. In 2016, she became the ninth president of Scripps College in Claremont, California, assuming the title of the W.M. Keck Foundation Presidential Chair.

In a farewell message, Soule outlined some of the highlights of her tenure at CASBS, which included building stronger engagement with the center’s fellows -especially given that the fellowship program, and the 2,575 fellows hosted in those years, form the core of the 71-year-old organization’s program.

She also cited fostering closer connections to Stanford itself through partnerships with other campus entities such as the VMWare Women’s Leadership Innovation Lab, Stanford Doerr School for Sustainability, Stanford Center for Digital Health.

These two threads tied together in Soule’s third example. “In addition, I initiated experiments designed to explore how CASBS might grow and scale in ways beyond the traditional fellowship model,” she wrote. “This year, we selected several promising projects from Stanford University faculty and/or former CASBS fellows to host at CASBS. These groups provided their own funding for their workshops and were able to take advantage of our beautiful physical space and our ability to host conferences and workshops.