Laura Hanish

Dr. Laura D. Hanish is the Executive Director of the T. Denny Sanford Harmony institute (SHI) at Arizona State University (ASU). In this capacity, she leads a pan-university organization advancing knowledge generation, translation, and dissemination in support of children’s relationships and well-being. SHI is dedicated to the grand vision of creating a world in which every child benefits from caring relationships with the people in their life.

Hanish is an experienced leader in the field of developmental science, with a body of work spanning over 25 years. Hanish has well over a decade of leadership experience in academic research organizations. She also has significant expertise in research focused on children’s relationships and well-being and in-depth knowledge of the translation of research into effective interventions to support children. Her translation efforts have resulted in the Sanford Harmony Programs, which have been disseminated to 400,000 educators in 57,000 schools across the US and internationally.

Hanish has 100 publications to her credit, and her work has garnered $30m in investments from the federal and philanthropic sectors. She has provided over 40 invited addresses in the US and internationally.

Prior to leading SHI, Hanish served as Dean’s Fellow in The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at ASU and as Interim and Deputy Director for the T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics at ASU. She co-led the Sanford Harmony Program, Lives, and Link Initiatives at ASU that provide the scholarly foundation for the SHI. In the professional sphere, she recently served as a Specialty Chief Editor, launching the Social and Emotional Section of Frontiers in Developmental Psychology, an open access journal dedicated to making high quality social developmental science accessible worldwide. Her doctoral mentees have gone on to successful careers in higher education and community positions.

Hanish is a Professor in the T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics and an Affiliate in the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College. She is an ASU alumnus, having received her bachelor's degree in Psychology from ASU. She earned her master’s and doctoral degrees in Developmental and Clinical Psychology from the University of Illinois at Chicago.