Abbie Maroño
Facilitator
Abbie Maroño
Facilitator
Facilitator
Dr. Abbie Maroño became a professor of psychology at 23, which would be the defining line in most bios but was only the beginning of hers. Since then, her work in trust, influence, and nonverbal communication has put her in front of representatives from 29 U.S. federal agencies, including the U.S. Secret Service, FBI, and Department of Homeland Security, as well as senior leaders at INTERPOL. The Secret Service later honored her contribution to its forensic training with an award.
Abbie also writes and speaks for people who will never sit in one of those training rooms. She is a TEDxManchester speaker and the author of The Upper Hand and Work in Progress. BBC News, Fox News, WIRED, Reuters, Forbes, and Court TV have featured her work, and the U.S. Department of State has recognized her extraordinary ability in behavioral science.
Experience and Expertise
Long before the federal training and media appearances, Abbie was studying how people communicate without realizing it. Her doctoral work at Lancaster University examined whether nonverbal mimicry could increase closeness and cooperation and make people more willing to share information.
That research sits at the heart of The Upper Hand, the framework she created to explain how trust develops and how influence can work without coercion. She also applies her expertise as an expert witness, where she is asked to interpret behavior in criminal and high-profile civil cases.
Abbie is careful about the limits of body language and has little use for the popular claim that one gesture can reveal exactly what someone is thinking. Her SNI sessions teach participants to read behavior in context, build trust deliberately, and pay closer attention to what their own behavior is communicating.
Education and Personal
Abbie earned a first-class bachelor’s degree in psychology with forensic psychology from the University of Lincoln and a Ph.D. in psychology and behavior analysis from Lancaster University. She published her first peer-reviewed paper at 19 and now directs the Body of Researchers Investigating Nonverbal Communication. She is also a member of the Centre for Research and Evidence on Security Threats. Originally from the United Kingdom, Abbie calls Orlando home and was named to the Orlando Business Journal’s 2026 40 Under 40 class.
