Member spotlight: Daniela Barrios Reyna

Daniela is dedicated to redefining productivity through a positive psychology lens. At IPPA, she found a community eager to exchange ideas about the field she loves.

Having worked in the field of operations and project management for the past seven years, measuring and promoting productivity is a key part of her work. However, the question behind her drive goes beyond how much gets done and invites us to rethink how we go about it.

What would productivity look like if it were designed to support engagement and long-term human flourishing?

Ultimately, her mission is to create a more humane and sustainable framework for defining and experiencing productivity.

Originally from Venezuela and currently based in the United States, Daniela works for a boutique consulting firm specializing in strategy, governance, and implementation in the nonprofit world. Over the past couple of years, she has been developing Conscious Productivity, a framework that explores presence, purpose, and practice as foundations for meaningful progress at work.

Now, as a Master of Applied Positive Psychology student at the University of Pennsylvania, she is exploring how the science of human flourishing can inform and deepen that quest.

Finding her subject and her people

Daniela remembers the appeal of positive psychology in unusually direct terms.

“When I learned that I could dedicate my life to the scientific study of wellbeing, I knew I had found my home.”

That curiosity runs through her work, studies, and personal life. Through her studies at the University of Pennsylvania, she is exploring the mechanisms and philosophy of human flourishing in greater depth, with particular interests in character strengths, optimism, agency, spirituality, and hope.

Finding the subject she wanted to study made her eager to connect with people who shared her enthusiasm.

“I was craving a space where I could connect with people who could speak my language, a community of professionals who are also learning and practising positive psychology.”

She joined IPPA without much hesitation.

“I joined and immediately felt connected to a welcoming and wise community that enjoys learning about positive psychology as much as I do! It has been so refreshing.”

That sense of recognition has grown into participation. Daniela has been invited to join the leadership team of IPPA’s Work and Organizations Division, allowing her to contribute to the community she came to learn from.

She also belongs to a community of practice cohort that meets monthly for unstructured connection. Practitioners and researchers from different parts of the field come together to talk and learn from one another.

For someone exploring a developing idea such as Conscious Productivity, the appeal of those different perspectives is easy to understand. Other members bring their own questions and ways of applying positive psychology. There is room to be curious about work beyond her own.

“It has been fascinating to learn from them.”

A book worth opening again

Asked what she would recommend to fellow members, Daniela chooses a book she recently revisited during her master’s coursework: Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience.

The chapter “The Anatomy of Consciousness” struck her especially strongly this time. With so many priorities competing for attention, she found it particularly relevant.

It is a fitting choice for someone thinking carefully about what people give their time and energy to. Her interest in positive psychology also has a personal dimension that resists any suggestion of effortless optimism.

“Choosing to live from a place of love, hope, curiosity and optimism is not an easy task with everything going on around the world,” she says.

Learning alongside others gives her somewhere to keep exploring those ideas. When asked what has been most valuable about IPPA, Daniela’s answer is brief: “The people that I have the pleasure to connect with.”

She arrived wanting people who spoke her language, and now she’s helping shape the conversation.