The Human
Potential L.A.B.
Imagine if every person could unlock their potential and become the fullest expression of themselves.
Imagine if every experience, environment, and relationship could bring that about.
Human potential is vastly greater than we know. The Human Potential L.A.B. is a new nonprofit dedicated to confronting the myths and false assumptions we carry about how people become who they become.
Today, false beliefs and mindsets about people are embedded so deeply in our social, learning, and work systems that it is hard to escape their constraints. Doors may not open or are shut tight to you.
In classrooms and workplaces designed the way many are today, there are undoubtedly Einsteins, Mozarts, and Malalas that we don't even know are there. We have not gotten to the right answers about learning, performance and unlocking human potential because we have not been asking enough of the right questions.
FOUNDING LEADERSHIP
PAMELA CANTOR, M.D.
Co-Founder and CEO
A child and adolescent psychiatrist specializing in trauma, author and thought leader on the science of learning and development and unlocking human potential. In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, she founded Turnaround for Children, now the Center for Whole-Child Education at Arizona State University. Dr. Cantor crystallizes key scientific concepts about human potential and learning.
JIM SHELTON
Co-Founder
President and Chief Investment and Impact Officer at Blue Meridian Partners, a philanthropic vehicle to identify and scale solutions to the problems trapping youth and their families in poverty. Jim is the co-founder of Amandla Enterprises, an impact investment and advisory firm, and former Deputy Secretary of Education and founding Executive Director of My Brother's Keeper under President Barack Obama.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
TALIA MILGROM-ELCOTT
Board Chair
Talia Milgrom-Elcott is the founder and executive director of Beyond100K (originally 100Kin10), a nonprofit focused on preparing and retaining 150,000 excellent STEM teachers for American classrooms by 2032 with equity, representation, and belonging. In that work, she mobilizes hundreds of leading organizations that have committed to working together toward the Beyond100K moonshot with the end goal of ending the STEM teacher shortage. She is also the founder and executive director of the Starfish Institute, a nonprofit consulting firm that partners with field leaders to tackle their most intractable problems by building and activating the networks they need to succeed. Her innovative work has been featured in Forbes, the Stanford Social Innovation Review, Harvard Business Review, and other publications.
MARK GROVIC
Mark Grovic is a seasoned investor and education innovation leader with over two decades of experience building and funding mission-driven ventures. He is a founding partner at New Markets Venture Partners, where he has led investments in breakthrough education and workforce technologies, and previously served as a professor of entrepreneurship and ethics at the University of Maryland. Mark brings deep expertise in scaling impact-driven organizations, building strategic partnerships, and mentoring entrepreneurs at the intersection of learning, equity, and technology.
DEBORAH SMOLOVER
Deborah Smolover is a nationally recognized social innovation and public policy leader with over 30 years of experience in law, advocacy, philanthropy, and nonprofit leadership. As Executive Director of America Forward, she has helped leverage more than $2 billion in public funding for social innovation and championed breakthrough federal legislation advancing measurable outcomes for children, workers, and families. Previously, Deborah was a Managing Partner at the venture philanthropy firm New Profit, and she served as Associate Deputy Attorney General and Counsel to former Attorney General Eric Holder at the U.S. Department of Justice. She is an honors graduate of Harvard Law School and Harvard College and serves on multiple nonprofit boards focused on education and civic engagement.
ABOUT THE L.A.B.
The Human Potential L.A.B. exists to translate, advance, and apply scientific knowledge that challenges the long‑standing belief that human potential is fixed, scarce, or knowable in advance. Grounded in interdisciplinary science and spanning the fields of neuroscience, developmental psychology, epigenetics, learning science, and systems design, and incorporating emerging technologies, the L.A.B. serves as both a translator of emerging science and a catalyst for new practice.
At the heart of our work is an interdisciplinary scientific advisory committee, co-chaired by Pamela Cantor M.D. and David Moore.
NARRATIVE AND CULTURE CHANGE
Purpose: To transform public understanding of human potential and create demand for science-based alternatives to outdated models.
We are changing how the world understands human possibility. Through storytelling using social media platforms, digital media, and public engagement, we are replacing outdated myths with a new science-backed understanding: human potential is limitless and developable.
We equip changemakers across education, health, workforce, and policy with the language and tools to shift culture from one of selection to one of cultivation.
STUDIO
Purpose: To show how the science of human possibility can drive real-world impact across sectors and systems.
We work with forward-thinking partners to show how science can transform design, decision-making, and outcomes. From school systems to youth networks to workforce initiatives, we help organizations put the science of human possibility into action and we document and share what works.
Our applied work is the “proof of concept” that this science can drive meaningful change in the real world.
