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Our team will periodically post updates in this space to keep you informed on how the platform is evolving. Thank you for being part of the neuroarts community.

6-9-25: We’re excited to share that the NRC’s social feed now includes comments—making it easier than ever to engage in conversation and connect with others across the community. We’ve also made several quality-of-life improvements, including an enhanced notifications system. Now, you’ll receive an alert when your submitted organization has been verified. If you’ve previously submitted an organization, don’t forget to make it publicly visible so the community can find and connect with you!

DirectoryIndividuals

Mary Helen Immordino-Yang

Professor at University of Southern California
Los Angeles, California
Avatar image of Mary Helen Immordino-Yang

Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, Ed.D., is the Fahmy and Donna Attallah Professor of Humanistic Psychology and a professor of education, psychology, and neuroscience at the University of Southern California. She is the founding director of the USC Center for Affective Neuroscience, Development, Learning and Education, or CANDLE.

Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, Ed.D., is the Fahmy and Donna Attallah Professor of Humanistic Psychology and a professor of education, psychology, and neuroscience at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, USA. She is the founding director of the USC Center for Affective Neuroscience, Development, Learning and Education, or CANDLE. Immordino-Yang received her doctorate from Harvard University in 2005 and completed postdoctoral training in affective neuroscience with Antonio Damasio in 2008. She has since pioneered novel approaches to the study of child and adolescent social-emotional and brain development, and has written extensively on implications for educational practice and policy. She has received numerous national and international awards for her work, and in 2023 was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Education and in 2025 the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Interests

I am interested in the psychological and neurobiological development of social emotions, meaning-making and self-awareness, and connections to thinking and learning in formal and informal educational settings. I use interdisciplinary studies of narratives and feelings to uncover experience-dependent neuropsychological mechanisms that integrate cognition and emotion, contributing to intellectual identity, intrinsic motivation, deep learning, and generative, creative, ethical, abstract and transcendent thought. My work has a special focus on development of diverse adolescents from under-resourced communities, whom I additionally involve in my work as junior scientists. My current collaborative studies with educators examine relations among effective urban secondary teachers’ neuropsychosocial capacities, professional narratives, and developmental knowledge.