World Happiness Summit® on Tour at SXSW2026

Dr. Laurie Santos

Laurie Santon, PhD, is the Chandrika and Ranjan Tandon Professor of Psychology at Yale University.

In addition to her work on the evolutionary origins of human cognition, Laurie is an expert on the science of happiness and the ways in which our minds lie to us about what makes us happy. Her Yale course, “Psychology and the Good Life,” teaches students how the science of psychology can provide important hints about how to make wiser choices and live a life that’s happier and more fulfilling. The class became Yale’s most popular course in over 300 years, with almost one out of four students enrolled. Her course has been featured in the New York Times, NBC Nightly News, The Today Show, GQ Magazine, Slate and O! Magazine. The online version of the class—The Science of Well-Being on Coursera.org—has attracted more than 4 million learners from around the world. A winner of numerous awards both for her science and teaching, she was recently voted as one of Popular Science Magazine’s “Brilliant 10” young minds, and was named in Time Magazine as a “Leading Campus Celebrity.” Her podcast, The Happiness Lab, is a top-3 Apple podcast which has attracted 100+ million downloads since its launch.

Gretchen Rubin

Gretchen Rubin is one of today’s most influential and thought-provoking observers of happiness and human nature. She’s known for her ability to convey complex ideas—from science to literature to stories from her own life—with levity and clarity.

She’s the author of many bestselling books, such as The Happiness Project, Better Than Before, The Four Tendencies, and Life in Five Senses which have sold millions of copies in more than thirty languages. Her most recent book is Secrets of Adulthood.

She’s also host of the popular podcast, Happier with Gretchen Rubin, and co-host of the new Since You Asked advice podcast. She’s also the founder of award-winning Happier app, which helps people track their happiness-boosting habits.

Gretchen Rubin has been interviewed by Oprah, eaten dinner with Nobel Prize-winner Daniel Kahneman, walked arm-in-arm with the Dalai Lama, had her work reported on in a medical journal, been written up in the New Yorker, and been an answer on Jeopardy! After starting her career in law, she realized she wanted to be a writer while she was clerking for Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. Raised in Kansas City, she lives in New York City with her family.

Elizabeth Craft

Elizabeth Craft is a television writer and producer.  She and her writing partner, Sarah Fain, have Executive Produced, created, and written for numerous television shows including Angel, The 100, the Emmy and Peabody Award-winning show The Shield, Women’s Murder Club (which they created based on the James Patterson novels), The Vampire Diaries, and Lie To Me. Elizabeth and Sarah created the ABC show The Fix with former Los Angeles prosecutor Marcia Clark. Most recently, they developed the re-make of the iconic show Fantasy Island for FOX, which ran for two seasons.

Elizabeth is also the co-host of the hugely popular weekly podcast Happier With Gretchen Rubin, as well as the co-host of the Happier In Hollywood podcast, which is about how to survive the war of attrition that is life in Los Angeles. She lives in the Valley with her husband, her sixteen-year-old son, and their two Corgis.

Dr. Ethan Cross

Ethan Kross is one of the world’s leading experts on emotion regulation. An award-winning professor and bestselling author in the University of Michigan’s top ranked Psychology Department and its Ross School of Business, he studies how the conversations people have with themselves impact their health, performance, decisions and relationships. Ethan is the two-time National Bestselling author of SHIFT: Managing Your Emotions—So They Don’t Manage You and CHATTER: The Voice in Our Head, Why it Matters and How to Harness It. His books are routinely featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, BBC, The New Yorker. He has participated in policy discussion at the White House and has been interviewed on CBS Evening News, Good Morning America, Anderson Cooper Full Circle, and NPR’s Morning Edition.

Jennifer Breheny Wallace

Jennifer Breheny Wallace is an award-winning journalist and bestselling author. Her first book, Never Enough: When Achievement Culture Becomes Toxic — And What We Can Do About It, was a New York Times bestseller and an Amazon Best Book of the Year. Her latest book Mattering: The Secret to a Life of Deep Connection and Purpose was published in January.

Wallace is the founder of The Mattering Institute, whose mission is to create cultures of mattering in workplaces and communities, and co-founder of The Mattering Movement, a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating cultures of mattering in schools. Jennifer is a Special Advisor to University Health & Counseling (UHC) at the University of Michigan and a member of their Well-being Collective Advisory Council. She is also on the Advisory Board for Making Caring Common, a project of the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Wallace is a Journalism Fellow at The Center for Parent and Teen Communication at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. She is also serving as a guest lecturer for NYU’s Fall 2025 course, Education, Mattering, and the American Dream: Understanding Achievement Culture.

A maternal mental health advocate at Calm, Wallace also consults for Netflix, is a BCG BrightHouse Luminary, and has partnered with The LEGO Group on its global “Play Unstoppable” campaign, addressing perfectionism and fostering confidence through play.

Wallace began her journalism career at CBS’s 60 Minutes, where she was part of a team awarded the Robert F. Kennedy Award for Excellence in Journalism. She contributes to The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post, CNBC, among other outlets.

She serves on the board of the Coalition for the Homeless in New York City, where she lives with her family.

**PHOTO Credit: Jo Bryan Photography

Dr. Nicholas Epley

Nicholas Epley is the John Templeton Keller Professor of Behavior Science and Director of the Roman Family Center for Decision Research at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He studies social cognition—how thinking people think about other thinking people—to understand why smart people so routinely misunderstand each other. He has been awarded the 2008 Theoretical Innovation Award from the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, the 2011 Distinguished Scientific Award for Early Career Contribution to Psychology from the American Psychological Association, the 2015 Book Prize for the Promotion of Social and Personality Science, and the 2018 Career Trajectory Award from the Society for Experimental Social Psychology. Epley was named a “professor to watch” by the Financial Times, one of the “World’s Best 40 under 40 Business School Professors” by Poets and Quants, and one of the 100 Most Influential in Business Ethics in 2015 by Ethisphere. He is the author of the new book, A Little More Social: How Small Choices Create Unexpected Happiness, Health, and Connection.

Karen Guggenheim

Karen Guggenheim is a pioneer in the global happiness movement and a leading voice in promoting the science and practice of wellbeing. She is the founder and CEO of WOHASU®, and the visionary behind the World Happiness Summit®—recognized by Forbes as one of the “Top 5 Leadership Summits in the World.” Since its launch in 2016, WOHASU has grown into a global movement uniting thought leaders, expanding transformational ideas, providing training, and increasing social connection across cultures and industries.

After experiencing a profound personal loss, Karen made the life-changing decision to dedicate her work to creating a legacy rooted in wellbeing and purpose. That choice led her to become an unexpected entrepreneur, founding WOHASU in 2016 to launch the first World Happiness Summit. Today, WOHASU’s in-person events have reached thousands of attendees from over 80 countries.

Karen creates transformative experiences that blend evidence-based science, storytelling, and community building. She works with multinational corporations, nonprofits, and school systems to embed wellbeing into leadership, culture, and education.

In 20225, Karen created the Tech for Good™ Human Flourishing in the AI Era to add to WOHASU’s Summit Collection and expand on its mission to expand the ripples of the science wellbeing.

She spearheaded the WOHASU® Wellbeing Leadership Certification, a groundbreaking initiative launched in the third-largest public school district in the U.S., reaching over 400,000 students and 34,000 employees. The program equips leaders with practical tools to reduce burnout, increase engagement, and build happier, more resilient schools.

Karen is also the founder of the WOHASU Wellbeing Foundation, a nonprofit focused on systemic change. Through the foundation, she created the World Wellbeing Policy Forum, an international platform to elevate the conversation on the economics and public policy of wellbeing in business, education, and government.

She is the author of Cultivating Happiness: Overcome Trauma and Positively Transform Your Life, a TEDx speaker, a board member of the World Wellbeing Movement, and an advisory board member of the International Positive Psychology Association (IPPA).

Karen holds an MBA from Georgetown University. Her work has been featured in CNN, CNN en español, The Financial Times, The Telegraph, BBC, Univision, Forbes, Fast Company, and other global media. She lives in Miami and speaks internationally in both English and Spanish.

Dr. Kelli Harding

Dr. Kelli Harding wants to make the world a kinder and healthier place. She believes everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and kindness.

Dr. Harding is a Columbia University trained board certified psychiatrist. She is based in New York City and specializes in the interplay between mental and physical health. Her goal is to care for every patient with a comprehensive, holistic approach. Dr. Harding is the author of THE RABBIT EFFECT: Live Longer, Happier, and Healthier with the Groundbreaking Science of Kindness (Atria Books, Fall 2019).

In her work as a physician, writer, and educator, Dr. Harding explores the science of kindness and the social dimensions of health. These hidden factors affect the body in profound ways, altering metabolism, immune functioning, mental health, and the course of disease. In her work as a doctor, she combines the latest biomedical advances with big-picture public health research to help people live well, even with chronic disease or serious illness.

Dr. Harding works with individuals, groups, and the general public to foster emotional wellbeing. Her warm engaging style focuses on compassion and connection. She’s appeared on Today, Good Morning America, NPR, The New York Times, Medscape, BBC, Oprah.com, Thrive Global, Psychology Today, mindbodygreen, Refinery 29, Tracy Anderson’s PER4MANCE PROGRAM, Parents Magazine, Inc. and U.S. News and World Report.

Alla Klymenko

Alla Klymenko is known in Eastern Europe and abroad as a psychologist and happiness educator who has been studying well-being, goal setting, and mindfulness for over ten years. Her lectures, workshops, and seminars help thousands of people become more successful, happier and radically change their outlook on life. Her goal is to make a billion people around the world happier.

Alla believes in cultivating equal access to education on positive psychology, depression prevention, and well-being for populations across the globe. Being a pioneer in Eastern Europe’s happiness movement, her every speech and presentation is an inspirational show. As a motivational speaker with live audiences ranging from hundreds to tens of thousands, her unique presentations and classes touched the hearts of thousands of people.

Alla is the author of workshops, seminars, and online courses attended by participants from Eastern and Western Europe, the Middle East, and Northern America. She also published several unique self-improvement workbooks and inspirational journals – Happy Me Journal, Thank You Diary, and Dream Year Book. She is the co-founder and head coach of Eastern Europe’s largest self-improvement summer camp, Upgrade Yourself Camp.

A featured guest on a variety of podcasts, she hosts Alla and Happiness YouTube channel (with 158 thousand followers) with motivational speeches and interviews with the world’s leading experts in the fields of happiness and well-being – Karen Guggenheim, Tal Ben-Shahar, Mo Gawdat, Fred Luskin, Sonja Lyubomirsky, Michael Roach, Joe Vitale, John Gray, and many others.

Shortly after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Alla joined forces with the world’s leading speakers, Tal Ben-Shahar, Marci Shimoff, and others, to create the Two Happy Weeks online course aimed at maintaining a positive attitude amidst challenging global events to support the affected population during the period of turbulence.