Ashley Whillans

Ashley Whillans, a Canadian and American author and former actor, is an assistant professor at Harvard Business School and grew up in Coquitlam, British Columbia. As a child, she entered acting, signed with an agent, and appeared in theater and film; one of her appearances was in Juno, where she gave Elliot Page's character a dirty look. She trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and graduated in 2008. She later completed a bachelor's, a master's, and a doctorate in social psychology at the University of British Columbia. She began her academic career at the University of Chicago, where she was a guest lecturer and visiting scholar at the Booth School of Business. At Harvard Business School she teaches in the Negotiation, Organizations and Markets unit. Her 2020 book Time Smart explores time poverty and time affluence, and she gave a TED Talk on work-life balance. She was named a Rising Star of Behavioral Science in 2015 and 2018.