Robyne Hanley-Dafoe

Robyne Hanley-Dafoe is a Canadian educator, resilience researcher, and speaker whose work explores how individuals can build the psychological resources needed to thrive in the face of adversity, change, and chronic stress. A professor at Trent University in Ontario, she has devoted her career to translating resilience science into practical tools that people in high-pressure environments can actually use.

Hanley-Dafoe’s academic and personal backgrounds are deeply intertwined. Her research into resilience was shaped partly by her own experiences navigating hardship, and she brings an authenticity to her work that distinguishes it from more detached academic treatments of the subject. She holds graduate degrees in education and educational psychology and has spent years teaching, mentoring, and studying the factors that enable people to recover from setbacks and sustain well-being over time.

Her book Stress Wisely: How to Be Well in an Unwell World challenges the conventional stress management narrative that frames stress primarily as a threat to be minimized or eliminated. Instead, Hanley-Dafoe draws on contemporary research to argue that stress, managed wisely, can be a catalyst for growth, connection, and even performance. The book offers readers a framework for changing their relationship with stress — not by pretending it doesn’t exist, but by developing the skills and mindset to engage with it more effectively.

As a keynote speaker, Hanley-Dafoe has addressed audiences across healthcare, education, business, and government, where burnout, compassion fatigue, and organizational change are pressing concerns. Her presentations blend humor, personal vulnerability, and research-backed insights in a way that audiences consistently describe as both entertaining and deeply practical. She has been recognized as one of Canada’s most compelling voices on workplace well-being and human resilience.

Hanley-Dafoe’s work matters especially in a cultural moment when stress and overwhelm have reached epidemic proportions in many professional fields. By offering a more nuanced, evidence-based, and compassionate lens on the human stress response, she helps readers and organizations move from merely surviving difficult times to actively growing through them.