Susan Nolen-Hoeksema

Biography

Nolen-Hoeksema was born in Springfield, Illinois. Susan Nolen-Hoeksema attended Yale University where she received a Bachelor of Arts with a major in psychology. She graduated in 1982 summa cum laude. She then went on to University of Pennsylvania where she earned a Master of Arts (1984) and Ph.D. (1986) in clinical psychology. As a graduate student, Susan's research focused primarily on understanding the predictors of depression among children and adolescents. Nolen-Hoeksema led the Depression and Cognition Program at Yale University. Traditionally the focus of the lab was on depression; however, past and current work focused on generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder and other mood disorders.

From 1986 to 1995, she was a faculty member at Stanford University receiving tenure in 1993 and moved to the University of Michigan where she was promoted to the rank of professor and directed the institute for Research on women and gender. From 1995 to 2004 she was a tenured professor at the University of Michigan in the Personality Area. From 2004 to 2013, Nolen-Hoeksema was a professor, researcher, and the head of the Yale Depression and Cognition Program.

Susan was honored with the Yale graduate school's mentoring prize since 2005. She was the founding editor of the Annual Review of Clinical Psychology from 2005 to 2013.

She died on January 2, 2013, of complications from heart surgery to repair damage caused by a blood infection.