About

Alexis Redding is a developmental psychologist whose work focuses on supporting young adults during the college years and in the transition to the workforce. As faculty co-chair of Higher Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) she teaches courses in student development, student affairs, and research methods.  

She is a leading expert on mental health in young adulthood and is the editor of Mental Health in College: What Research Tells Us About Supporting Students (Harvard Education Press) and is the inaugural faculty chair of the Mental Health in Higher Education professional development program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s (HGSE). 

She co-leads the Transition to Adulthood Lab, which uses a trove of lost interviews from the 1970s to study generational continuity and lifespan development. Along with her colleague, Nancy Hill, she wrote The End of Adolescence: The Lost Art of Delaying Adulthood (Harvard University Press) and several articles in The Atlantic about this study. 

Redding has also done research on student identity development, with a focus on moral identity development and ethical reasoning skills. This research was used to support the design of the Harvard College Honor Code, to revise ethical guidelines in the field of college admissions, and to create policies that combat academic dishonesty in schools around the country. 

She is a TEDx speaker and frequently delivers keynotes about college student mental health, the undergraduate experience, and the transition from college to the workforce. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Fast Company, Teen Vogue, Inside Higher Ed, Psychology Today, and The Harvard Business Review, among other publications.

She was a presidential scholar at Harvard University and earned her doctorate in human development and education from the HGSE. She also holds an Ed.M. in human development and psychology from HGSE, an A.B. from Harvard College, and a Graduate Certificate in college counseling from UCLA.

In 2023, she was awarded the Morningstar Family Teaching Award, presented annually to a HGSE faculty member who makes an outstanding impact on their students and the Harvard community.