Denise Pope, Ph.D.

Denise Pope, Ph.D., is a senior lecturer at the Stanford University School of Education. She specializes in student engagement, curriculum studies, qualitative research methods, and service learning. She is co-founder of Challenge Success, a research and intervention project that provides schools and families the tools they need to raise healthy, motivated students. Challenge Success is an expanded version of the SOS: Stressed-Out Students project that Pope founded and directed from 2003-2008. She lectures nationally on parenting techniques and pedagogical strategies to increase student well-being, engagement with learning, and integrity. 

Her book, “Doing School”: How We Are Creating a Generation of Stressed Out, Materialistic, and Miseducated Students was awarded Notable Book in Education by the American School Board Journal, 2001. Pope is a three-time recipient of the Stanford University School of Education Outstanding Teacher and Mentor Award. She has been featured on CNN, World News Tonight, the Today Show, NPR, and several other television and radio programs. Prior to teaching at Stanford, Pope taught high school English in Fremont, CA and college composition and rhetoric courses at Santa Clara University.