Claude Steele

Claude M. Steele is the Lucie Stern Professor Emeritus of Psychology at Stanford University. He is a former member of RSF’s board of trustees and was chair of the board from 2017 to 2020. He developed the concept of stereotype threat and its effects on minority student academic performance. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Education, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society. His 2010 book, Whistling Vivaldi and Other Clues to How Stereotypes Affect Us, summarizes years of research on stereotype threat and the underperformance of minority students in higher education. Steele was a contributing author to two RSF edited volumes: Cultural Divides: Understanding and Overcoming Group Conflict; and Engaging Cultural Differences: The Multicultural Challenge in Liberal Democracies.