Mary Poffenroth

Consultant, Doctor, Educator/Teacher, Explorer, Idea generator, Scientist, World traveler, Writer/Editor

Dr. Mary Poffenroth, a biopsychologist, fear/courage researcher, and first-generation college student, began her career in the astrobiology unit at NASA Ames Moffett Field, supporting payload experiments for STS-107, the 28th flight of Space Shuttle Columbia. Backed by one of the world’s largest publishers, Mary’s award winning book, Brave New You: Strategies, Tools, and Neurohacks to Live More Courageously Every Day (Hachette, 2024), offers readers an innovative solution for moving past stifling everyday fear and into a life filled with brave choices that result in transformational outcomes. Mary holds a doctorate in psychology and three master's degrees (biology, psychology, and science communication) and has taught nearly 20,000 university students as biology faculty at San Jose State University since 2007. A Salzburg Global Fellow, Mary has spoken at TEDx London, Harvard, Stanford, SXSW, Google X Labs, San Francisco’s Exploratorium, Imperial College London, VMware Explore, the London Science Museum, and INBOUND. At the same time, her work is consistently featured in prestigious print outlets like TIME magazine, Forbes, Science, Entrepreneur, the Wall Street Journal, Cosmopolitan, Newsweek, SUCCESS Magazine, SELF, Men’s Health UK, and Fast Company.

Helping people navigate their everyday fears to maximize their full potential.

Navigate your everyday fear and you will have a limitless well of innovation.

Biology, communication, emotional intelligence, fear, Higher Education, psychology, speaker, stress, team building, workshops, writing

As a first generation college student, I learned about the natural world through the exploration of both traditional and non-traditional learning opportunities. I want to create inclusive, accessible, and enjoyable opportunities to learn science as an adult so we can all feel like we belong.

improv comedy