Grant Rich

Grant J. Rich (Ph.D., Psychology, University of Chicago), was 2024 President of APA’s Society for Media Psychology and Technology, and also 2024 President of APA's Society for Peace, Conflict, and Violence, and has served on the executive committees of these organizations. His leadership works towards promoting a worldview of living peacefully and cooperatively through greater international scholarship exchange and working together with the profession and the public to make progress towards positive social change.

Dr. Rich is an elected Fellow of APS, of APA, and five of APA’s divisions including D2 (Teaching), D46 (Media), D48 (Peace), and D52 (International). Dr. Rich has extensive experience in managing organizations and projects; for instance, he served D48 successfully for three years as its APA Convention Program Chair (2020-2022), and, for four years, was Editor of D52’s substantial quarterly International Psychology Bulletin (IPB); receiving its President’s Award for Extraordinary Service. Among other honors, he received the Academic Service Award, American University of Phnom Penh and twice was a NEH Fellow. ). He is 2023 recipient of the Frances Mullen Award for Distinguished Contributions to International Psychology (ICP: International Council of Psychologists).

Dr. Rich has published over 110 peer reviewed journal articles/book chapters/encyclopedia entries in leading journals including American Psychologist, Journal of Positive Psychology, Humanistic Psychologist, and Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, Oxford Bibliographies, the Caribbean Journal of Psychology, and Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment, and Trauma. He is the senior editor of 11 academic books, including Pathfinders in International Psychology (2015) Internationalizing the Teaching of Psychology (2017), Human Strengths and Resilience (2018), Teaching Psychology Around the World, Volume 4 (2018) and 5 (2020), Psychology in Southeast Asia (2020), Psychology in Oceania and the Caribbean (2022), Psychosocial experiences and adjustment of migrants: Coming to the USA (2023), Handbook of Media Psychology (2024), and Teaching Psychology Globally (2026). He also authored an extensive textbook supplement for a best-selling text on Abnormal Psychology for Allyn & Bacon. Additionally, he has a sole-authored book in contract ("Resilience and Post-Traumatic Growth: Cross-Cultural and Developmental Perspectives"). He is editor (founded by the late Anthony Marsella, U. Hawai'i), of the Springer book series International and Cultural Psychology (ICUP).

Dr. Rich is a leader in online and global education, serving as Senior Contributing Faculty at Walden University, where he has worked since 2013. His publications include several books/articles focused on diversifying psychology education via online education/media (e.g., MOOCs) as well as cutting edge practices in psychology curricula in the USA (e.g., chapter by Rich & Takooshian, in press 2026). Dr. Rich has over twenty-five years of experience teaching courses in psychology, research design and methods, and mathematics to both undergraduate and doctoral students and has taught at institutions around the globe, recently in Alaska (2006-2011), Cambodia (2014), and India (2016).

Dr. Rich serves on several editorial boards, including PLOS One and three APA journals: Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology, Traumatology and Peace & Conflict. He has also published over 100 book reviews and offered more than 110 professional presentations in the USA and internationally, including APA, AERA, AAA, APS, IAAP, and ICP, along with numerous international conferences ranging from Africa and Europe to Mexico and the Caribbean to the Middle East.

Dr Rich has an abiding interest in behavioral health technologies, including prescription digital therapeutics (PDTs) and their precursors, such as Experience Sampling Method (ESM) approaches. Dr. Rich is co-editor of the Handbook of Media Psychology: The science and the practice (2024) with past APA President Frank Farley and V. Krishna Kumar. He is elected as 2026 APA Council Representative, to represent the Society of Media Psychology and Technology at the national level.

A board-certified massage therapist (NCBTMB), he is the editor of an academic book of quantitative research "Massage Therapy: The Evidence for Practice" (2002) and served a term as a National Board Member of the NCBTMB (2018-2019). A licensed social worker, he has served on medical missions internationally and traveled to over 33 nations. In addition to his professional work and involvement in contemporary cultures, Dr. Rich has an abiding interest in archaeology, taking him from Antarctica to Altun Ha, Juneau to Jerash, Butrint to Brú na Bóinne, Becán to Banteay Srei, Cahokia to Caral to Knossos, Port Arthur to Port Royal, Río Bec to Reykjavík 871±2, Sigatoka to the Singapore Stone, Stonehenge to the Serpent Mound, Petra to Preah Vihear, Teotihuacán to Tikal, and beyond. Dr. Rich has served as the main grant writer for several major federal SAMHSA grants (e.g., $2 million and $2.8 million SAMHSA COVID-19 emergency grants, and $7.9 million ARPA and $7.3 million Appropriations Act Supplemental Mental Health and Substance Abuse Block Grants). Dr. Rich resides in Juneau, Alaska where, from 2017 to 2025, he was a full-time research analyst with the State of Alaska Division of Behavioral Health.

Courses Taught

PSYC 6701 - Culture and Psychology

PSYC 6740 - Disaster, Crisis and Trauma

DPSY 8816 - Development in an era of Global Crisis

PSYC 6215 - Lifespan Development

RSCH 8100 - Research Design and Methods

Public Service

Society for Peace, Conflict and Violence (APA), Other -

Awards / Honors

President’s Award for Extraordinary Service: APA Division of International Psychology, APA, 2014

Publications

Rich, G. J., Ramkumar, N. (2022). Psychology in Oceania and the Caribbean.

Rich, G. J., Kuriansky, J., Gielen, U., Kaplin, D. (2023). Psychosocial experiences and adjustment of migrants: Coming to the USA (foreword by Antonio Puente).

Takooshian, H., Gielen, U. P., Plous, S., Rich, G. J., Velayo, R. (2016). Internationalizing undergraduate psychology education: Trends, techniques, and technologies.. American Psychologist

Rich, G. J., Gielen, U. P., Takooshian, H. (2017). Internationalizing the teaching of psychology. (forewords by Jaan Valsiner, David Myers, and Saths Cooper).

Rich, G. J., Sirikantraporn, S. (2018). Human strengths and resilience: Developmental, cross- cultural, and international perspectives (foreword by Chris Stout)..