OBSSR Director's Webinar Series

The OBSSR hosts virtual and in-person meetings that highlight behavioral and social sciences research (BSSR). In coordination with the NIH Institutes, Centers, and Offices, other government agencies, and the wider BSSR community, OBSSR facilitates opportunities to network, collaborate, explore, and advance BSSR.

OBSSR hosts a Director’s Webinar Series on a variety of BSSR topics to help communicate BSSR findings and other relevant BSSR information. Subscribe to receive updates on the latest OBSSR and BSSR-related event information.

View the list of past OBSSR Director's Webinars

Director's Webinar
Event Date: September 19, 2023, 2:00 pm
Presenter: Neil Lewis, Jr., Ph.D., Cornell University

Presentation topic: Social Influence, Policy, Economics, and Communications

Neil Lewis, Jr., Ph.D., is a behavioral scientist who studies how social interventions and policies can motivate behavioral changes to promote equitable outcomes in society. Lewis’s research examines how people’s social contexts and identities influence how they make sense of the world around them, and the implications of those meaning-making processes for their motivation to pursue a variety of goals in life. He is interested in the consequences of these processes not only for individuals, but also for the communities and societies those individuals are embedded in; he is particularly interested in using insights from research findings to improve educational, health, and environmental outcomes for individuals and societies. Lewis’s work has been recognized by numerous awards and honors, including: the Janet Taylor Spence Award for Transformative Early Career Contributions from the Association for Psychological Science, the SAGE Young Scholar Early Career Award from the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, and Cornell’s Research and Extension Award for Outstanding Accomplishments in Science and Public Policy. Lewis received his B.A. in economics and psychology from Cornell University and his M.S. and Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of Michigan.

Director's Webinar
Event Date: March 19, 2024, 2:00 pm
Presenter: Julianne Holt-Lunstad, Ph.D., Brigham Young University

Presentation topic: Social Connection

Julianne Holt-Lunstad is a professor of psychology and neuroscience and director of the Social Connection & Health Lab at Brigham Young University. She is also the founding scientific chair and board member for the U.S. Foundation for Social Connection and the Global Initiative on Loneliness and Connection. Dr. Holt-Lunstad is an international scientific expert whose research focuses on the individual and population health effects, biological mechanisms, and effective strategies to mitigate risk and promote protection associated with social connection. Her research has been seminal in the recognition of social isolation and loneliness as risk factors for early mortality. As the lead scientific editor for a US Surgeon General’s Advisory and Framework for a National Strategy, her work also focuses on translating evidence into practice and policy. She serves as a scientific advisor and regularly consults for organizations across sectors aimed at addressing this issue. She has provided expert testimony in a US Congressional Hearing, served as a member of multiple National Academy of Sciences consensus committees, the UK Cross Departmental Loneliness Team, European Joint Research Council, World Health Organization, and a subject matter expert for the Gravity Project, Commit to Connect the national clearinghouse of interventions and the CDC. Her work has been widely recognized within her discipline, including several awards, and is regularly highlighted in major media outlets.

Director's Webinar
Event Date: March 26, 2024, 2:00 pm
Presenter: Timnit Gebru, Ph.D., The Distributed AI Research Institute (DAIR)

Presentation topic: Social and Computational Science

Timnit Gebru is the founder and executive director of the Distributed Artificial Intelligence Research Institute (DAIR). She received her Ph.D. from Stanford University, and did a postdoc at Microsoft Research, New York City in the FATE (Fairness Accountability Transparency and Ethics in AI) group, where she studied algorithmic bias and the ethical implications underlying projects aiming to gain insights from data. Dr. Gebru also co-founded Black in AI, a nonprofit that works to increase the presence, inclusion, visibility, and health of Black people in the field of AI. She is also on the board of AddisCoder, a nonprofit dedicated to teaching algorithms and computer programming to Ethiopian highschool students, free of charge.