Our Mission

About the Founder

Dr Katy Granville-Chapman is an educator, researcher, and coach dedicated to helping people and communities flourish. She founded The Flourishing Brain to bring together cutting-edge science and practical tools that support wellbeing, learning, and human thriving in everyday life.

Katy’s passion for human potential and flourishing began during her service in the British Army, where she witnessed how people could thrive even in the most challenging environments; they could also languish in the most comfortable circumstances. This experience sparked a lifelong commitment to understanding how people learn, grow, and flourish.

She went on to complete her MSc and DPhil at the University of Oxford, where she also lectured on the MSc in Learning and Teaching. Katy’s DPhil thesis covered flourishing and leadership.

Katy is an Associate Fellow and former Research Fellow of the Oxford Character Project (at The Department for Politics and International Relations, University of Oxford), where she co-directed the creation of Leading with Character, a free of charge global course accessed by thousands of learners worldwide in partnership with the Human Flourishing Program at The Institute for Quantitative Social Science, Harvard. She also co-chairs the Leadership for Flourishing group, part of the Flourishing Network hosted by The Human Flourishing Program, and is co-editor of Leadership for Flourishing (Oxford University Press).

As an author, Katy has co-written Leader: Know, Love, and Inspire Your People - a Business Book Awards finalist - and The Flourishing Teenage Brain: A Scientific Operating Guide for Parents, with Dr Sara Lazar (a Harvard neuroscientist) and Sir Anthony Seldon, which translates neuroscience into accessible strategies for families. She also co-founded Global Social Leaders, a movement uniting young changemakers across more than 100 countries.

Beyond her professional work, Katy is a competitive athlete, representing Great Britain in age-group triathlon and is formerly a national swimmer and GB synchronised swimmer. She lives with her husband Jeremy, their two sons (12 and 14), and an enthusiastic Golden Retriever.