Guest Speaker, Julie Lythcott-Haims

Drawing on research, on conversations with educators, admissions officers, and employers and on her own insights as a mother and former student dean at Stanford University, Julie highlights the ways in which overparenting harms children, their stressed-out parents, and society at large. While empathizing with the parental hopes and, especially, fears that lead to overhelping, Julie offers practical strategies that underline the importance of allowing children to make their own mistakes and develop the resilience, resourcefulness, and inner determination necessary for success.

Julie is a former corporate lawyer and Stanford dean, and she holds a BA from Stanford, a JD from Harvard, and an MFA in Writing from California College of the Arts. She serves on the boards of Foundation for a College Education, Global Citizen Year, Common Sense Media, and The Writers Grotto, and on the advisory board of LeanIn.Org. She volunteers with the hospital program No One Dies Alone. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her partner of over thirty years, their young adults, and her mother.