Dana C. Jack

Biography: Dana C. Jack, Psychologist, earned her BA at Mount Holyoke College, her MSW at University of Washington, and her Ed.D. at Harvard University. Her main areas of research focus on women's depression and anger in the U.S. and internationally. Her four books have been translated into numerous languages. As a Fulbright Scholar to Nepal in 2001, she taught in a graduate women's studies program at Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, and also completed research on gender and depression in Patan Mental Hospital and Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital. She was awarded WWU Olscamp Outstanding Researcher in 2002. In 2011, her book, Silencing the Self Across Cultures: Depression and Gender in the Social World (co-edited with Alisha Ali) was awarded the American Psychological Association, International Division award for the book “that makes the greatest contribution to psychology as an international discipline and profession.” In addition to research, Dana enjoys teaching at Fairhaven College in the areas of culture, gender and psyche!
Interest Areas: Dana's interests also include emerging research on brain plasticity, attachment theories, and culture's effect on symptom formation, specifically in eating disorders and depression. In addition, she has participated in the Mind and Life conferences and Summer Research Institute since 2003.. She was a Mind and Life Visiting Scholar at Amherst in Fall, 2013, examining selflessness and anatta. Her course on the Psychology of Mindfulness and Wellbeing, begun in 2007, includes first- and third-person methods of study, including mindfulness practice and the effects of meditation on the brain. She is an avid hiker, having trekked over 135 days in remote areas of Nepal; ocean kayaker; and traveler, including in Kenya, Madagascar, and Zambia as well as Asia, Central and South America.