Our
Evidence-Based Approach
Our History
Empirical Applications is the parent company formed in 2002 to
support Drs. Julie McDonald and Josh Klapow in their pursuits as psychologists, behavioral scientists, and performance coaches. Over the past 20 years they have provided organizational, research and individual consultation to thousands of individuals across corporate,
private science, and academic institutions.
Empirical Applications has supported Drs. McDonald and Klapow in
their clinical pursuits as licensed psychologists, as well as their ventures in leadership development education, population based health technology, organizational change facilitation, mergers and acquisitions due diligence, individual executive, venture capital, and athlete performance coaching.
Julie E. McDonald, PhD
Principal
Dr. Julie McDonald has been practicing as a licensed clinical psychologist for over 30 years. She and her business partner, Lisa Graham, Ph.D. founded McDonald Graham, LLC, a boutique leadership development and coaching company in 2015. McDonald Graham’s mission is to facilitate the difficult inner work that enables people to become their best selves. By employing research-based approaches from the field of psychology to the workplace, Dr. McDonald puts psychology to work enhancing skill sets that are often neglected in leadership development.
Dr. McDonald works with professionals at all levels of their careers, individually or in small group settings. Her experience ranges across a wide variety of organizations including small, family-owned businesses, nonprofit agencies, academic institutions, and Fortune 500 companies. Dr. McDonald’s coaching approach is action-oriented, forward-thinking, and individualized to focus on the client’s goals. She specializes in working with high-performing individuals and high-pressure teams.
Dr. McDonald is skilled at helping people let down their guard, have honest conversations about challenges they are facing, and spark new ways of approaching work and life that lead to greater effectiveness and more fulfillment. She facilitates the difficult inner work that builds better leaders.
Our Founding Principals
Joshua C. Klapow, PhD
Principal
Joshua C. Klapow is a clinical psychologist, behavioral scientist, and performance coach. Dr. Klapow works with elite athletes, athletic organizations, executives, investors, and the businesses with which they are associated.
Dr. Klapow’s credentials include being a Phi Beta Kappa alumnus of the University of California, Los Angeles, and holding a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of California, San Diego. He has authored over 100 scientific publications and written the book LivingSMART: Lifestyle Change Made Simple.
Dr. Klapow was also a co-founder of ChipRewards, a privately held company with proprietary software that delivered incentive offerings to influence population health behaviors. ChipRewards grew to become one of the healthcare sector’s largest engagement technology solutions. This entrepreneurial success led him to be named one of the top entrepreneurs to watch in 2020 by Yahoo Business.
Dr. Klapow strongly believes that the science of psychology must be made readily available to the public. He has made thousands of media appearances across a variety of television and radio outlets. Dr. Klapow also created the MentalDrive Initiative—a social media presence that brings the public the most inspiring, rigorous, and useful information for improving life performance and achieving fulfillment and success.
Dr. Klapow’s approach to coaching is driven by a single behavioral science theme: any intervention must blend as seamlessly as possible with the cadence of a client’s routine. Timing is everything for optimal learning, improvement, and change. His coaching process is, therefore, uniquely personalized and never templated.
