Denise Larsen is a professor, and an experienced elementary teacher, psychologist, and researcher. For the past 18 years she has been dedicated to field research investigating the importance of hope in classroom and counselling psychology settings. She has led many large cross-disciplinary research teams in mixed-methods studies. Her research has been funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and other major funders. Her work is published in top-tier academic journals, the Encyclopedia of Hope, as well as in teacher classroom materials. She is an internationally recognized hope researcher and an in-demand public speaker who has delivered numerous professional development workshops to Alberta educators on working effectively with hope in the classroom. The work of her research lab, Hope Studies Central, has been recognized with several awards including the 2011 Canadian Mental Health Association Celebrate Mental Health Award – Ron Lajeunesse Award. In 2016, she was received the University of Alberta top prize for graduate teaching, the Award for Excellence in Graduate Teaching. She is a Fellow of the Canadian Psychological Association.

As a researcher, I am most interested in questions of career-life, hope as a resource in career-life development, relational and sociocultural contexts of work/career, and the integration of social justice principles and action on climate change in career-life development. With Dr. Larsen, I have been involved in research exploring experiences of hope in supporting career-life development and wellbeing in schools, and teacher and school leader experiences of hope. Currently I am leading a participatory action research project exploring hope and climate aware career development with youth.