Dr. Mary Carol Mazza is a senior behavioral scientist (behavioral economist/social psychologist) at Apple with nearly 20 years of qualitative and quantitative research experience in fields ranging from tech to healthcare, government, and education. At Apple, she seeks to delight users around the world.
Prior to Apple, Mary Carol worked as a principal innovation consultant and UX researcher at PARC, one of the oldest technology companies in the Bay Area. She completed a joint post-doctoral fellowship in healthcare innovation, health services research, and user experience research at Stanford School of Medicine and Palo Alto Medical Foundation conducting research to improve health systems across the United States and abroad. Conducting her dissertation work at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, she received a PhD in business studies and organizational behavior from a joint program at Harvard Business School and Harvard’s Graduate School of Arts & Sciences where she investigated decision making and the underlying behavioral inconsistencies that lead to suboptimal outcomes. Earlier she worked for the government at the Texas Health and Human Services Commission aiming to improve systems and government policies related to poverty, healthcare, and social service issues. Currently, she continues these interests through work for a handful of national and international nonprofits. She also holds an A.M. in social psychology from Harvard and an honors BA in psychology and economics with concentrations in poverty and women's studies from Washington and Lee University in Virginia.
She has studied on four continents, trekked across (just under) 60 countries, and explored all 50 of the United States. Dr. Mazza was a 2013 AcademyHealth Delivery System Science Fellow at Palo Alto Medical Foundation, the original reason for her move to the Bay Area where she has happily remained.