Dr. Kelly Lambert

As a first-generation college graduate, I know firsthand how education, mentorship, and opportunity can expand what someone believes is possible. For more than three decades, my work as a behavioral neuroscientist has been driven by one central question: How do our experiences shape our brains and, ultimately, our lives?

My research has taken me from neuroscience laboratories to classrooms, books, keynote stages, documentaries, and conversations far beyond academia, always with the same goal: to make neuroscience understandable, useful, and relevant to everyday life. Along the way, my studies—from maternal brain adaptations to the remarkable driving rats that captured global attention—have revealed the brain's extraordinary capacity to change through experience.

I am proud to serve as the MacEldin Trawick Chair at the University of Richmond, where I conduct research, teach behavioral neuroscience courses,  and mentor emerging scientists. But my broader mission extends beyond the laboratory: to help people understand that our brains are continually sculpted by what we do, pursue, and experience—and that this knowledge can empower us to build healthier, more resilient, and more flourishing lives.