Michael W. Bridges

Michael W. Bridges, PhD, is a coauthor of How Learning Works: Eight Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching, contributing alongside Marsha C. Lovett, Michele DiPietro, Susan A. Ambrose, and Marie K. Norman. He is Executive Director of the University Center for Teaching and Learning at the University of Pittsburgh, where he focuses on supporting effective teaching and learning in higher education.

Bridges earned his doctorate in social psychology from Carnegie Mellon University in 1997 and has applied his background in the psychology of personality and motivation to course development across a wide range of disciplines. His work has included faculty development at UPMC St. Margaret Hospital, where he collaborated with family practice residents and fellows, and his scholarly interests encompass motivation and goal-directed behavior, the relationship between stress and disease, and the role of personality in responses to traumatic life events.