Mary Gergen

Mary Gergen is an American social psychologist specializing in feminist studies womens' studies and social constructionism. Her contributions to the field of feminist studies, organization development Organization development, and social process are reflected in numerous books, journal articles, and presentations (see publications below). She grew up on the plains of southwestern Minnesota, and later moved with her family to St. Louis Park, a suburb of Minneapolis. She obtained her B.S. in English and Education with a minor in speech and theatre aat the University of Minnesota, where she was elected Phi Beta Kappa. She was a member of Delta Gamma sorority. She later obtained her M.S. in Educational Psychology with a specialization in counseling at the University of Minnesota. Moving to Boston with her first husband, Michael Gebhart, and their two children, Lisa and Michael, she worked at Harvard University as a research assistant in the Social Relations Department, and later at the Harvard Business School in marketing. In 1969 she married Kenneth J. Gergen and moved to Rose Valley, Pennsylvania. In 1980, Mary Gergen earned a Ph.D. in Psychology at Temple University, with a specialization in Social Psychology. She also worked for four years as a psychological consultant for AT&T on their longitudinal study of managers' lives.

Mary Gergen began her teaching career at Penn State, Brandywine in 1984 as an assistant professor in Psychology and Women's studies. In 1988-89, Gergen was a fellow at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study. She won the George W. Atherton teaching award, a university wide honor, in 1966, and became a full professor. Gergen was given the title of Emerita upon retiring from the college in 2006.

She obtained her B.S. in English and Education with a minor in speech and theatre at the University of Minnesota, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and as homecoming queen. She was a member of Delta Gamma sorority. She later obtained her M.S. in Educational Psychology with a specialization in counseling at the University of Minnesota. Mary Gergen earned a Ph.D. at Temple University in Social Psychology.

Since the 1970s, she has been a member of the American Psychological Association, and a founding member and fellow of Div. 35, The Society for the Psychology of Women. In the early 1990s, she was one of the seven founders of The Taos Institute, a non-profit organization dedicated to the development of social constructionist ideas within diverse practice areas, including therapy, organizational consulting, and education. She is a co-creator of the positive aging newsletter healthandage.com, an electronically distributed news source designed to reconstruct the negative stereotype of aging, and to provide an alternative that is more promising in potential. She also edits the Tempo Book series. Mary Gergen travels internationally to give lectures and workshops and serves on examination committees and as an external examiner for Ph.D. theses from many countries, in addition to supervising several doctoral dissertations and teaching in a theoretical psychology program at Massey University, NZ.