Alison Wood Brooks

At Harvard Business School, Alison Wood Brooks is the O’Brien Associate Professor of Business Administration and Hellman Faculty Fellow. Prof. Brooks’s class, “TALK: How to Talk Gooder in Business and Life,” is one of the most popular electives at HBS, with a waitlist of eager participants (from inside and outside Harvard) that she cannot accommodate. Her 2025 book, TALK, packed with immediately useful insights, is a refreshing and accessible look at how understanding the science of conversations helps you master the art of being yourself. “Read this book,” writes Arthur C. Brooks, the #1 bestselling author and happiness expert, “and your life will improve.”

Alison Wood Brooks is a recipient of Harvard’s Wyss Award, for Excellence in Mentoring, and has been named to the Poets & Quants list of Best 40-Under-40 Business School Professors. Her research on the science of conversation has been published in academic journals as well as popular media outlets such as The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. Brooks holds a Ph.D. in Decision Processes from Wharton and a bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Finance from Princeton.