Donna Jackson Nakazawa

Donna Jackson Nakazawa is an award-winning science journalist, author of seven books, and an internationally-recognized speaker whose work explores the intersection of neuroscience, immunology, and human emotion. Her newest book, Girls on the Brink: Helping Our Daughters Thrive in an Era of Increased Anxiety, Depression, and Social Media (Random House/Harmony) explores today’s growing adolescent female mental health crisis, and offers a new playbook for how we—parents, families, and the human tribe—can ensure a healthy emotional inner life for all of our girls. Donna’s writing has appeared in Wired, The Boston Globe, Stat, The Washington Post and Health Affairs. She has appeared on The Today Show and NPR and is a regular speaker at universities, including the Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona, the Harvard Division of Science Library Series, Rutgers University Behavioral Health, the Peace & Justice Institute, Learning and the Brain, and Johns Hopkins.

Donna’s other books include, The Angel and the Assassin: The Tiny Brain Cell That Changed the Course of Medicine, named one of the best books of 2020 by Wired magazine, Childhood Disrupted, a finalist for the Books for a Better Life Award, and The Last Best Cure. For her writing on health and science, she received the AESKU lifetime achievement award and the National Health Information Award. Donna is also the creator and founder of the narrative writing-to-heal program, Your Healing Narrative, which uses a process called Neural Re-Narrating™ to help participants recognise and override their brain’s old thought patterns and internalised stories, and create a new, more powerful, inner healing narrative that calms the body, brain, and nervous system.