Donna Jackson Nakazawa is an award-winning science journalist, author of eight books, and an internationally-recognized speaker whose work explores the intersection of neurobiology and human emotion.

Her latest book, Girls on the Brink: Helping Our Daughters Thrive in an Era of Increased Anxiety, Depression, and Social Media, was named one of the best health books of 2022 by The Washington Post and Mashable. Donna’s other books include The Angel and the Assassin: The Tiny Brain Cell That Changed the Course of Medicine, named one of the best books of 2020 by Wired; Childhood Disrupted, a finalist for the Books for a Better Life Award; and The Last Best Cure.

Her writing has appeared in Wired, The Boston Globe, Stat, The Washington Post, Psychotherapy Networker, and Health Affairs. She has appeared on The Today Show and NPR and is a regular speaker at organizations and universities nationwide including the Child Mind Institute, UCLA Open Mind Speaker Series, the Harvard Division of Science Library Series, Rutgers University, Johns Hopkins, Children’s Hospital Association, and the Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine. Donna also lectures at middle and high schools around the country.

Donna’s newest book, The Adverse Childhood Experiences Guided Journal, will be available on August 1, 2024, wherever books are sold, and is available for pre-order now.

Donna is also the creator and founder of the narrative writing-to-heal programs, Breaking Free From Trauma, and Your Healing Narrative, which use the process of Neural Re-Narrating to help participants recognize and override the brain’s old thought patterns and internalized stories, and create a new, inner healing narrative that calms body, brain, and nervous system. She has taught this trauma-healing course to thousands of individuals, parents, health care workers, physicians, and educators. She is also the creator of the parenting course,, Raising Strong Girls. 

Donna has been the recipient of writing-in-residence fellowships at the Corporation of Yaddo, the MacDowell Colony, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and Moulin a Nef. She received her Bachelor of Arts from Duke University and is a graduate of the Radcliffe Publishing Procedures Program.

She lives with her family in Maryland.

Learn more about Donna’s Speaking Events and Lectures

You can find her on Instagram @DonnaJacksonNakazawa