16 Facts About Susan Smalley

Susan Smalley is an American behavioral geneticist, writer and activist.

Susan Smalley has published more than 100 peer-reviewed papers and lectured globally on the genetics of human behavior and the science of mindfulness.

Susan Smalley is on the scientific advisory board for Stop Breathe and Think, an app for emotional well-being; and the board of directors for Equality Now, an international human rights organization focused on women and girls; and was honored by Equality Now in December 2019.

Susan Smalley joined the faculty at UCLA after she completed post-doctoral fellowships in medical genetics and childhood psychopathology, moving from assistant to full professor until her retirement to emeritus in 2011.

Susan Smalley continued to research autism for the following ten years, producing numerous papers on the genetics and subclinical variants of autism beyond the diagnostic classification as well as genetic and behavioral studies of TSC.

Susan Smalley's lab produced more than 40 publications on the disorder, including the first genome-wide scan, candidate gene investigations, and a series of papers on ADHD among a northern Finnish birth cohort.

Susan Smalley wrote extensively on the strengths of those with ADHD, characterizing it as a different way of thinking rather than a deficit.

Susan Smalley was diagnosed with an early stage melanoma in 2002.

Susan Smalley took a leave of absence to explore non-western wellness practices, and in addition to significant lifestyle changes, she developed a meditation practice.

Susan Smalley subsequently led seminal studies that demonstrated the relationship between mindfulness and common personality traits of those with ADHD, mindfulness as an intervention in ADHD, and school-based approaches to bringing mindfulness to children.

Susan Smalley founded the Mindful Awareness Research Center at the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior to bring meditation practices to the general public through research and education.

Susan Smalley writes regularly for the Huffington Post and Psychology Today.

Susan Smalley was the keynote speaker at the UCLA Department of Anthropology commencement ceremony in 2013, and the 2017 Children and Adults with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder annual conference.

Susan Smalley majored in biological anthropology at the University of Michigan, and as an undergraduate became interested in population genetics and human evolution.

Susan Smalley received a BA in anthropology in 1976, and in 1981 earned an MA in anthropology from UCLA.

Susan Smalley is married to Kevin Wall, an entrepreneur, activist, and investor.