From Wikipedia: Sonja Lyubomirsky is a Russian-born American professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of California, Riverside and author of The How of Happiness: A Scientific Approach to Getting the Life You Want.

And there’s so much more.

Not long ago, Tammy Tolleson Knee, the new Director of the Phyllis J. Washington Center for the Advancement of Positive Education, asked me if I thought she should attend the Western Positive Psychology Conference at Claremont Graduate University. I saw that Sonja Lyubomirsky was the featured keynote speaker and immediately said “Hell, Yes!” [I didn’t really swear at the time, but it sounded cooler for this blog post].

I also looked at my calendar and was bummed that I couldn’t attend. But then I said to Tammy that we should reach out to Dr. Sonja for a possible short meet-up at the conference.

So I did.

She responded within hours.

At the conference, Tammy got to meet her and talk–despite the fact that Dr. Sonja also was busily signing her new book for the masses. How cool!

And then, Tammy shared the following email with our whole CAPE staff upon her return.

Happy Friday,                                ,

In honor of my Sonja Lyubomirsky buzz, I thought I’d share some fun tidbits and resources from the WPPA conference!

1. Her last name is pronounced Lou – Boe – Mere – Ski
2. Here is a recent chapter she co-authored in the Handbook of Social Psychology(6th ed.) titled “Well-being” (though she prefers the term “happiness”). It’s long but comprehensive. 
3. Here is a 5-minute Ted Talk teaser on her new book.
4. Fun fact: She has been cited in academic publications more than 90,000 times. 
5. She said the Big 3 PPIs are Gratitude, Kindness, and Social Interventions (or Acting Extraverted).
6. Among the many fascinating findings she shared was a study from Brain, Behavior, and Immunity suggesting that intentionally engaging in more extroverted behavior can improve patterns of gene expression.
7. She joked that part of her wishes they had never introduced the happiness pie. More on that later.
8. Her final advice: Share deeply, listen and be curious.
9. My overall takeaway: There is no end to what we can learn in positive psychology, and CAPE is very much on the right track.

In conclusion: Who is Dr. Sonja Lyubomirsky? She’s a bad-ass academic researcher who’s also incredibly personable and who, in her spare time, writes books designed to help people live better lives. You can learn more about her here: https://sonjalyubomirsky.com/