Kimberlyn Leary, Ph.D., MPA began her career as a clinical psychologist working as a practitioner to improve access to diverse communities and, as a psychoanalyst, to expand psychoanalytic perspectives on race and relationality. Her early work on negotiated transactions in psychotherapy expanded to broader research on negotiation, conflict transformation, and change management. She is an associate professor of psychology at the Harvard Medical School/McLean Hospital, an associate professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and a lecturer in public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. Leary served as an adviser to the Obama White House, working with the White House Council on Women and Girls to develop the Advancing Equity initiative (which focused on improving life outcomes for women and girls of color). She is currently a Senior Vice President of the Urban Institute, from which she is on Intergovernmental Personnel Act to serve as a Senior Equity Fellow at the White House Office of Management and Budget.
