Sarah Cavanagh

Sarah Rose Cavanagh is a psychologist fascinated by the interplay of emotions, motivation, learning, and quality of life. She has two decades experience teaching and researching in psychology as well as eight years experience conducting faculty development programs and workshops. Sarah heads up the teaching and learning programming offered by the CFE – organizing and sometimes facilitating programs like STAR Scholars, Food for Thought, Let’s Talk Teaching, and New Faculty Orientation. She also works closely with the rest of the CFE team on programs like the Teaching Institute and Course Redesign Institutes, and conducts most of the teaching observations, small group instruction diagnostics, and one-off teaching and learning programming requests. She also teaches as a Professor of Practice in psychology, so far primarily offering a course on Motivation and Emotion in the fall.

Before joining Simmons, Sarah was an Associate Professor of psychology and neuroscience at Assumption University, where she also served in the D’Amour Center for Teaching Excellence as Associate Director for Grants and Research. Her most recent research project, funded by the National Science Foundation, convenes a network of scholars to develop assessment, feedback, and grading practices aimed at greater effectiveness and equity in undergraduate biology education. Sarah is author of four books, including The Spark of Learning: Energizing the College Classroom with the Science of Emotion (2016) and Mind Over Monsters: Encouraging Youth Mental Health with Compassionate Challenge (2022). She gives keynote addresses and workshops at a variety of colleges and regional conferences, blogs for Psychology Today, and writes essays for venues like Literary Hub and The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Sarah holds a Ph.D. in experimental psychology from Tufts University, where she continues ongoing collaborations in the Emotion, Brain, and Behavior Laboratory as a Research Affiliate.