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.
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. She is a Senior Scholar at the Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development (IARYD) at Tufts University. Read her complete bio.
JIM SHELTON
Founding Board Chair
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. Read his complete bio.
TALIA MILGROM-ELCOTT
Vice Board Chair
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. Her innovative work has been featured in Forbes, the Stanford Social Innovation Review, and Harvard Business Review. Read her complete bio.
STRATEGIES
The Human Potential L.A.B. will translate, advance and apply scientific knowledge to transform what people believe and how they strive to unlock the talents and capabilities each of us possess.
The L.A.B. will launch with three overarching strategies to ensure that scientific principles shape learning, growth and opportunity, especially for young people:
NARRATIVE AND CULTURE CHANGE
Dispel the myths and false assumptions about human capability and potential and replace them with current scientific knowledge that offers a roadmap for unlocking both in ourselves and others
Produce and disseminate scientific content through stories and messaging via memoir, keynote speeches, and earned and social media
Build a broad community of allies (individuals and organizations) to transform beliefs and actions about human potential and reverse engineer what it takes to influence institutions, communities, policies, and individuals to champion the science of human potential
EXPERTS IN RESIDENCE (INTERDISCIPLINARY SCIENCE ADVISORY)
Design and launch a unique, international interdisciplinary science advisory (XIR) dedicated to curating, integrating, and coordinating knowledge about the emergent science of human potential. This includes, but is not limited to, disciplines such as human development, biological sciences, learning science, developmental psychology, the science of individuality, cognitive neuroscience, and epigenetics.
Respond to problems and questions presented by non-profit and for-profit clients seeking to curate and translate research on the science of human potential
Provide strategic consulting to leadership on strategies and frameworks to embed scientific principles and practices into workforce and learning settings, technology-based applications, HR practices, and beyond
THE STUDIO: AN INNOVATION HUB FOR HUMAN POTENTIAL
Design an immersive environment integrating research, product development, advisory, and investment to unlock human potential
Provide expertise and strategic connections to high-potential, early-stage, impact-focused enterprises to integrate the science of human potential into innovative products and services
Foster innovative solutions in education, youth development, and workforce development
Provide seed and early-stage capital to high-impact organizations, prioritizing those advancing transformative educational and workforce outcomes
The Human Potential L.A.B. is a nonprofit organization recognized as tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.
