Jane Abbott came to MIT after eighteen years in industry, where she worked with teams and individuals to improve collaboration. Her focus is on how to produce communication that is effective and authentic; in particular, how listening in its many guises guides the ways in which we write, speak, meet, lead, influence, and collaborate. Professional development: Emotional Intelligence Consortium; Interaction Institute for Social Change; Harvard Program on Negotiation. B.A. in English from Swarthmore College; MA in Languages, Literature and Communication, Columbia University.