Brené Brown

Brené Brown
Born	Casandra Brown
Birthplace	San Antonio, Texas, U.S.
Nationality	American
Occupation	Research professor, author, podcaster, lecturer
Employer	University of Houston
Known for	Research on shame, vulnerability, and leadership
Education	Ph.D. in Social Work (2002)
Website	[[brenebrown.com brenebrown.com] Official site]

Casandra Brené Brown is an American research professor, author, and podcaster who holds the Huffington Foundation's Brené Brown Endowed Chair at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work. She also serves as a visiting professor in management at the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin. Brown has spent more than two decades studying courage, vulnerability, shame, and empathy, and her research has shaped contemporary conversations about emotional resilience and authentic leadership. Her 2010 TEDx talk, "The Power of Vulnerability," became one of the most-viewed talks in the history of the TED platform, introducing her ideas to a global audience. Brown has authored six number-one New York Times bestselling books, including Daring Greatly, Rising Strong, Braving the Wilderness, Dare to Lead, Atlas of the Heart, and Strong Ground. Her work has extended into documentary film, with the 2019 Netflix special Brené Brown: The Call to Courage and a 2022 HBO Max documentary series based on Atlas of the Heart. She has hosted two podcasts on Spotify and is a frequent speaker at academic, corporate, and public events. Brown's research has attracted attention from educators, organizational leaders, and mental health professionals, contributing to broader discussions about how emotional awareness intersects with professional and personal development.

Early Life

Brené Brown was born Casandra Brown in San Antonio, Texas. She grew up in Texas and has spoken publicly about the influence of her upbringing in the state on her worldview and professional interests. In a 2025 interview with Texas Highways magazine, Brown described her deep connection to Texas, noting that her descriptions of her home state could resemble descriptions of the values she studies in her professional work.

Brown has discussed her personal background in various interviews and public appearances, including aspects of her family life and her faith. In a 2025 interview with NPR's Wild Card with Rachel Martin, Brown described herself as "stubborn about her faith," reflecting on how her spiritual life has informed her research into emotions such as vulnerability and shame. She has also spoken in interviews about the role of the Episcopal Church in her personal journey, noting that her exploration of faith was part of a broader process of self-examination that paralleled her academic work.

Brown has noted in public talks and writings that her early experiences with family, community, and the cultural environment of Texas informed her later interest in how people navigate shame and develop a sense of belonging. Her work frequently draws on personal anecdotes alongside empirical research, a practice she has traced back to formative experiences in her youth and early adulthood.

Education

Brown pursued her academic career in social work. She completed her doctoral studies at the University of Houston, where she earned her Ph.D. in Social Work in 2002. Her doctoral dissertation was titled Acompañar: A Grounded Theory of Developing, Maintaining and Assessing Relevance in Professional Helping. The dissertation employed grounded theory methodology to examine how professional helpers develop and sustain relevance in their work with clients. This methodological approach—rooted in qualitative, interview-based research—would become a hallmark of Brown's subsequent scholarly output on shame, vulnerability, and related emotional experiences.

Following the completion of her doctorate, Brown joined the faculty of the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work, where she would build her research career and ultimately receive an endowed chair.

Career

Academic Research

Brown's academic career has been centered at the University of Houston, where she is a research professor at the Graduate College of Social Work. Her research has focused primarily on the topics of shame, vulnerability, courage, empathy, and worthiness. Using qualitative research methods, particularly grounded theory, Brown has conducted extensive interviews and studies examining how individuals experience and respond to shame, and how vulnerability functions in interpersonal relationships and professional settings.

In February 2016, the University of Houston announced the establishment of the Huffington Foundation's Brené Brown Endowed Chair at the Graduate College of Social Work, a recognition of Brown's contributions to the field and the public profile she had brought to the university's social work program. The endowed chair was funded by the Huffington Foundation and named in Brown's honor, reflecting both her scholarly output and her broader cultural impact.

Brown also holds a position as a visiting professor in management at the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin, reflecting the extension of her research on vulnerability and courage into organizational leadership and business management contexts.

Her academic approach has been characterized by the use of qualitative data—primarily interviews—to build theoretical frameworks about emotional and psychological experiences. This methodology has distinguished her work from more quantitative approaches common in psychology and organizational behavior, and has also made her findings accessible to lay audiences through storytelling and narrative presentation.

TEDx Talk and Public Profile

Brown's public visibility increased dramatically following her June 2010 TEDx talk at TEDxHouston, titled "The Power of Vulnerability." In the talk, Brown discussed findings from her research on human connection, arguing that vulnerability is a necessary component of meaningful relationships and that shame functions as a barrier to authentic engagement with others. The talk was subsequently featured on the main TED website and became one of the most-viewed TED talks of all time, accumulating tens of millions of views.

The success of the TEDx talk brought Brown's research to a significantly larger audience than is typical for social work scholarship. It led to invitations to speak at conferences, corporate events, and media appearances, and contributed to the commercial success of her subsequent books. In a 2013 interview with Forbes, Brown discussed how the viral spread of her TED talk had changed her career trajectory, noting the challenges and opportunities of translating academic research into popular discourse.

Books

Brown has written multiple books that have achieved bestseller status. Six of her books have reached number one on the New York Times bestseller list. Her major published works include:

• I Thought It Was Just Me (but it isn't) — Brown's first book, focusing on her research into shame and the development of "shame resilience theory."
• The Gifts of Imperfection — A book exploring what Brown describes as "wholehearted living," drawing on her research into courage, compassion, and connection.
• Daring Greatly — Published in 2012, this book expanded on the themes of her TEDx talk, arguing that vulnerability is not weakness but rather a measure of courage. The title is drawn from a speech by Theodore Roosevelt. The book was discussed by Oprah Winfrey on her program Super Soul Sunday.
• Rising Strong — A follow-up examining the process of recovering from failure and disappointment.
• Braving the Wilderness — A book on belonging and the courage to stand alone.
• Dare to Lead — Published in 2018, this book applied Brown's research on vulnerability and courage to organizational leadership. It was aimed at business leaders and managers and drew on Brown's work with corporate clients and her position at the McCombs School of Business. In 2026, Business Insider reported that a management consultant cited Dare to Lead as the book that inspired him to leave his six-figure job, illustrating the book's continued influence in professional circles.
• Atlas of the Heart — Published in 2021, this book mapped 87 emotions and experiences that Brown identified in her research, aiming to provide readers with a more precise emotional vocabulary.
• Strong Ground — Published in 2025, this book explores the concept of values clarity and its implications for individuals, teams, and organizations. Brown discussed the book in a podcast conversation with organizational psychologist Adam Grant. She also hosted an "Ask Me Anything" episode on her podcast addressing listener questions about the book's concepts. In a personal essay about the book's release, Brown described the tradition of giving the first copy from a new shipment to her mother.

The Daring Way

Brown developed a professional training program called The Daring Way, which certifies therapists, counselors, coaches, and other helping professionals in a methodology based on her research. The program is designed to help facilitators work with individuals, couples, families, and organizations on topics including shame resilience, vulnerability, and wholehearted living.

Film and Television

In 2019, Netflix released the documentary special Brené Brown: The Call to Courage, in which Brown delivered a lecture-style presentation covering themes from her research, including vulnerability, courage, shame, and empathy. The special was filmed before a live audience and presented Brown's ideas in a format similar to her TED talks but at greater length.

In 2022, HBO Max released a documentary series based on Brown's book Atlas of the Heart. The series explored the emotions and experiences catalogued in the book, using a combination of Brown's commentary, interviews, and illustrative segments.

Podcasts

Brown has hosted two podcasts distributed through Spotify. The programs feature interviews with researchers, authors, and public figures, as well as solo episodes in which Brown discusses her research and its applications. Guests have included organizational psychologist Adam Grant, with whom Brown discussed her 2025 book Strong Ground. The podcasts have served as a platform for Brown to extend the reach of her academic work and engage with topics at the intersection of psychology, leadership, and personal development.

Consulting and Corporate Work

Brown's research on vulnerability and leadership has been applied in corporate and organizational settings. As profiled by Inc. magazine in 2018, Brown has worked as a leadership consultant, bringing her research findings to corporate clients seeking to improve organizational culture, team dynamics, and leadership effectiveness. Her appointment as a visiting professor at the McCombs School of Business reflects this extension of her work into the business world.

Personal Life

Brown resides in Texas, where she has lived for much of her life. She has spoken publicly about her personal experiences with vulnerability, shame, and mental health, often using anecdotes from her own life to illustrate research findings in her books and talks. In her 2013 Forbes interview, Brown discussed the personal dimensions of her research, including the ways in which studying vulnerability had affected her own self-understanding.

Brown has discussed her faith publicly, identifying as a member of the Episcopal Church. In a 2015 HuffPost article, she reflected on the role of faith in her life and work. In her 2025 NPR interview, she described herself as "stubborn" about her faith, indicating that her spiritual commitments have remained a consistent element of her personal identity alongside her academic career.

Brown has been recognized in Houston's civic and social life. The Houston Woman Magazine named her among its featured individuals. She has also been noted for philanthropic activity, including a surprise appearance and donation at a Houston luncheon event reported by the Houston Chronicle.

Brown's concept of belonging versus "fitting in" has remained a recurring theme in her public discourse. In a 2026 podcast interview, she elaborated on the distinction, arguing that "the opposite of belonging is actually fitting in," a formulation that captures a central tenet of her research.

Recognition

Brown's work has received attention from a range of media outlets, institutions, and public figures. Her TEDx talk, "The Power of Vulnerability," remains one of the most-viewed presentations in the history of the TED platform, bringing academic research on shame and vulnerability to a mass audience.

Her books have collectively sold millions of copies, with six reaching the number-one position on the New York Times bestseller list. The commercial and cultural success of these books has made Brown one of the most prominent public intellectuals working at the intersection of social work research and popular nonfiction.

The establishment of the Huffington Foundation's Brené Brown Endowed Chair at the University of Houston in 2016 represented a formal institutional recognition of her contributions to the field of social work and her role in elevating the profile of the university's Graduate College of Social Work.

Brown's Netflix special The Call to Courage (2019) and the HBO Max series Atlas of the Heart (2022) extended her reach into documentary film and streaming media, making her research accessible to audiences beyond the readership of her books and the viewership of her TED talks.

In media coverage, Brown's influence has been noted across diverse professional fields. Inc. magazine profiled her work as a leadership consultant in 2018, highlighting her impact on organizational culture and management practices. Her ideas have been cited in contexts ranging from military counseling to corporate management, as reflected in reporting by outlets including Baptist News Global and Business Insider.

Oprah Winfrey featured Brown on Super Soul Sunday, bringing her work to the attention of Winfrey's large television audience.

Legacy

Brown's body of work has contributed to a broader cultural shift in how vulnerability, shame, and emotional awareness are discussed in academic, professional, and public contexts. Her research, originally situated within the discipline of social work, has been adopted and applied across fields including psychology, education, organizational management, and leadership development.

The Daring Way certification program has created a network of trained facilitators who apply Brown's research-based methodology in clinical and organizational settings, extending the reach of her academic work beyond the university context.

Brown's influence on leadership discourse has been particularly noted. Her 2018 book Dare to Lead and her consulting work with organizations have contributed to conversations about the role of emotional intelligence and vulnerability in effective leadership. The continued relevance of this work is reflected in ongoing media coverage, including the 2026 Business Insider report on a management consultant who attributed a major career decision to reading the book.

Her 2025 book Strong Ground represents a continuation and evolution of her research agenda, focusing on values clarity and its role in navigating complex personal and professional environments. The book's exploration of paradox and grounded decision-making extends themes that have been present in Brown's work since her doctoral dissertation on relevance in professional helping.

As a public figure, Brown has modeled a form of academic engagement in which scholarly research is translated into accessible language and presented through multiple media platforms—books, TED talks, podcasts, Netflix specials, and HBO documentaries. This approach has influenced how other researchers and public intellectuals communicate their findings to non-specialist audiences, and has raised questions within academia about the relationship between scholarly rigor and popular accessibility.

Brown's emphasis on the distinction between belonging and fitting in, her framing of vulnerability as a component of courage rather than a weakness, and her systematic mapping of emotional experiences in Atlas of the Heart have entered popular discourse and are referenced in contexts ranging from therapy and counseling to corporate training and military support.