The Evolved Nest

 Darcia Narvaez is a Professor of Psychology Emerita at the University of Notre Dame. She is the founder of the public and professional educational outreach project The Evolved Nest Initiative whose nonprofit mission is to share her science research into developing appropriate baselines for lifelong human wellness and providing guidelines for fostering full human potential. This wellbeing baseline is imperative at this time as the United States ranks 41st out of 41 developed countries in public policies that support families. 

Darcia is the current president of the award-winning, venerable nonprofit Kindred World, who has been "serving the re-generation since 1996." The Evolved Nest is an initiative of Kindred World. See all of Kindred World's strategies and initiatives for advancing a Wisdom-based, Wellness-Informed Society here.

In 2022, Narvaez was elected a fellow to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the largest international body of professional scientists in the world and publisher of the prestigious journal Science. Narvaez was honored for her distinguished contributions illuminating typical and atypical development in terms of well-being, morality and sustainable wisdom. 

For the first portion of her career, Narvaez investigated moral psychology and moral development in typical ways — through studying reason, cognition, and education. But several years ago, she grew deeply interested in cross-disciplinary insights into evolutionary issues. As she read deeper into neuro- and clinical sciences, she began to see all sorts of connections that sparked further research.

“I realized that all these fields bore on moral development. I was awakened to the fact that human beings are a particular species with particular needs that, especially in early life, need to be fulfilled in order to construct an individual’s sociality and compassionate morality,” she said. “The key insight was realizing that our species’ evolved nest is vital for fostering our cooperative human nature. When the evolved nest is degraded, as it is in industrialized countries, it can impair capacities for cooperation and compassion because early stress is toxic to species-typical neurobiological function.”

Her empirical, theoretical, and applied research now focuses on the kinds of characteristics notable in communities that provide the evolved nest to children from conception, and nest all

ages throughout life, societies that demonstrate wellbeing, heart-minded morality, and communal imagination. 

In a 2020 analysis of top scientists, Narvaez emerged in the top 2% of scientists worldwide. Of the eight million scientists in the world, the analysis concerned those who had at least five articles published in scientific journals between 1996 and 2017-- over six million scientists. Individuals were ranked according to various criteria, including number of citations of their work.

Narvaez’s book, Neurobiology and the Development of Human Morality: Evolution, Culture and Wisdom, was chosen for the 2017 Expanded Reason Award from among more than 360 total entries from 170 universities and 30 countries. Narvaez received the prize, including a substantial monetary award, at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences in Vatican City on September 27, 2017. The book also received the William James Award from the American Psychological Association in 2015. She is former executive editor of the Journal of Moral Education.

Narvaez hosted interdisciplinary conferences at the University of Notre Dame regarding early experience and human development in 2010, 2012, and 2014. In 2016 she organized a conference on Sustainable Wisdom: Integrating Indigenous KnowHow for Global Flourishing. (Click on the links to see the full conferences in video on the Evolved Nest's YouTube Channel.)

She is the author or editor of numerous books and articles, see The Science page for listings. 

She is the president of the venerable American nonprofit, Kindred World, a contributing editor to Kindred, the first global eco-parenting magazine, a board of directors member of Attachment Parenting International, and an advisory board member of the Association for Pre- and Perinatal Psychology and Health, APPPAH. 

A strategic vision-holder for normalizing nurturing as a path to reclaiming our humanity and healing the Earth, Lisa Reagan is the founder of Kindred World, the editor of Kindred Magazine, and the co-founder of the Evolved Nest Initiative.

Introduced as a “force of nature” by Cassandra Vieten, IONS president, at the first Mindful Motherhood Conference in NYC in 2011, Lisa Reagan’s passionate dedication to empower American activists, professionals, and families to envision and create a Wisdom-based, Wellness-informed Society has led to the founding of multiple inspired nonprofit initiatives and collaborations since her transformative motherhood initiation in 1997.

Lisa’s Mother-of-a-Quest began with co-founding a grassroots organization of Wayfinders, Trance-breakers, and New Cycle Makers fiercely intent on protecting American’s children with educational initiatives to counter the country’s anti-nurturing culture and the resulting free fall to the bottom of all developed nations’ wellness indicators. 

Today, Kindred World is an award-winning nonprofit whose vision and mission are more relevant and critical than ever. Integrating a quarter century of cultural transformation insights into grounded Wayfinder Wisdom, Lisa currently shepherds Kindred World's nonprofit work through multiple initiatives and partner collaborations, including (see all here):

The Evolved Nest Initiative, a virtual learning center featuring the award-winning science and research of Darcia Narvaez, PhD. Lisa and Darcia collaborate on the creation of virtual educational outreach projects of the Evolved Nest, including the short film, Breaking the Cycle, Mighty Networks discussion groups, as well as monthly live discussions. Darcia Narvaez is ranked among the top two percent of scientists worldwide. Her research into humanity’s Evolved Nest reveals our “evolutionary pathway to wellbeing”. Darcia currently serves as Kindred World’s president.

Kindred Magazine is an alternative media platform championing a New Story of the Human Family. Lisa serves as Kindred’s executive editor, working with contributors to create podcasts, interviews, special feature series, and the expansion of Kindred’s New Story Glossary (because a new story needs new language). Kindred’s innovative media platform allows the many Kindred World initiatives and partner collaborations to interact and integrate personal stories, shifting worldviews, and cultural transformation victories. Our challenge, to bring visibility and coherence to cultural transformation, is achieved through Kindred Media’s holistic storytelling strategies.

The Worldview Literacy Project was created in partnership with Four Arrows and Darcia Narvaez and features Kindred's Worldview Chart by Four Arrows, a 90-day study and survey, and multiple resources to download for free for the self-directed and community learning program.

The Meet the Wayfinders Oral History Series was produced at the request of La Leche League International for their 65th Conference in 2021. This series integrates both Kindred’s many years of tracking unheralded victories of cultural transformation as well as introducing the concept of Kindred Activism, which explores both how the activists were successful in their quests and how their wayfinder advocacy can be duplicated. 

Lisa continues to steward Kindred World’s original vision of a Wisdom-based, Wellness-informed Society as the award-winning nonprofit serves an international following, expands collaborations with partners, and welcomes new volunteers and board members. To discover the ecology of Kindred World’s initiatives, visit www.KindredWorld.org. 

Read Lisa's full bio on Kindred.

Learn more about Kindred World and see its historic timeline of stewarding the Conscious Parenting Movement for over 25 years here.