Browse School of Humanities and Sciences

Izzy Benjamin Gainsburg

Social Science Research Scholar, Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society
Research Scholar, Institute for Research in the Social Sciences

BioI'm a social psychologist and Associate Director of Stanford University’s Politics and Social Change Lab (PASCL). There, I help lead the lab’s research program, cultivate partnerships with government and civil-society organizations, translate findings for practitioners and the public, and chart PASCL’s strategic direction.

My scholarship clusters around three threads:

1. Persuasion and Intervention Design (with a side of Artificial Intelligence) – designing and evaluating persuasive appeals and interventions to promote prosocial behavior and flourishing, and exploring how AI can enhance these efforts.

2. Compassion, Moral Concern, and Altruism – investigating psychological factors that influence compassion, altruistic behavior, and moral concern toward distant or abstract entities such as animals and future generations.

3. Meta-Science and Field-Building – identifying and promoting the highest-impact research questions and interventions, and developing novel methods (including AI-based approaches) to maximize social scientists' positive impact on society.

Before Stanford, I was a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School and the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. I received Ph.D. in Social Psychology from Michigan (2020) and my B.A. in Psychology from Tufts University (2011).

Outside the lab, you'll find me spending time with family and friends, playing all the sports, improvising dishes in the kitchen, and doing various nature-y things in nature.

Gabriela Gall Rosa

Rsch Data Analyst 1, VMware Women's Leadership Innovation Lab

Denise Geraci

Administrative Director, Science, Technology and Society

BioAs the administrative director for the Program in Science, Technology, and Society, I am responsible for managing and overseeing the program’s operational, financial, and human resources. I hold a PhD in anthropology and have long been interested in applied social science and public anthropology. I am happy to support a program that trains students to think critically about how social contexts and processes relate to practices of science and technology. My professional interests also include community-university partnerships and international education. Before joining STS, I worked for Stanford Global Studies, managing professional development programs for community college faculty interested in internationalizing college curriculum. I also worked for Stanford's Center for Latin American Studies, and have more than ten years’ experience conducting research, working, and studying in Latin America, primarily Mexico, Bolivia, and Guatemala.