Psychosocial Experiences and Adjustment of Migrants: Coming to the USA

Grant J. Rich received his Ph.D. in Psychology: Human Development from the University of Chicago. His work focuses on optimal cross-cultural human development and international positive psychology, including resilience and posttraumatic growth. Dr. Rich is senior editor of eight books, including Pathfinders in International Psychology (2015), Internationalizing the Teaching of Psychology (2017), Human Strengths and Resilience: Developmental, Cross-Cultural, and International Perspectives (2018), Teaching Psychology Around the World, Volume 4 (2018), Teaching Psychology Around the World, Volume 5 (2020), Psychology in Southeast Asia: Sociocultural, clinical and health perspectives (2020), and Psychology in Oceania and the Caribbean (2022). A Fellow of the American Psychological Association (APA), and a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science (APS), Dr. Rich has taught at institutions around the globe, recently in Alaska, Cambodia, and India. Since 2013, he has served on the faculty of Walden University. Dr. Rich has published over 75 peer-reviewed journal articles/book chapters in top journals including American Psychologist, Humanistic Psychologist, Journal of Humanistic Psychology, Journal of Positive Psychology, Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment, and Trauma, and Professional Psychology. A board-certified massage therapist (NCBTMB), he is editor of the academic book of quantitative research Massage Therapy: The Evidence for Practice (2002, Elsevier) and served a term as NCBTMB National Board Member (2018-2019). A licensed social worker, he has served on medical missions internationally. He serves on the editorial boards of several peer-reviewed journals, including PLOS One, and APA’s journals Traumatology and Peace & Conflict. He currently is lead editor another book in contract, The International Handbook of Media Psychology (co-edited with past APA President Frank Farley and Krishna Kumar). Dr. Rich is President-Elect of two APA divisions, the Society for Media Psychology and Technology, and the Society for Peace, Conflict, & Violence.

Dr. Judy Kuriansky is a noted international clinical psychologist and Professor of Psychology and Education at Columbia University Teachers College. At the United Nations, she is the main NGO Representative of the International Association of Applied Psychology and World Council for Psychotherapy for the past 20 years, serves on many NGO Committees, and moderates, co-produces and serves as a speaker for innumerable events co-sponsored by Member States and the World Health Organization on varied subjects. As a member of the UN NGO Committee on Migration, she participated in years-long negotiations regarding the Global Compact on Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, meeting with many government delegates and then invited to the final negotiations in Morocco in December 2018. She has spoken about migration at many conferences, including for the UN Commission on the Status of Women NGO/NY Forum on issues about women and men, transgenerational trauma, and intersection with climate change, and also briefed the UN Group of Friends on Migration about psychological issues. As President of the Psychology Coalition of NGOs accredited by the UN Economic and Social Council, she partnered with the Ambassador of Palau on a successful campaign on the intergovernmental level to secure the inclusion of mental health and wellbeing in the UN Global 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and similarly advocated successfully regarding the Universal Health Coverage Political Declaration, the Sendai Framework, and the Global Compact for Migration. She chaired the Global Council on Health of the “SDGS in Action initiative of the United Arab Emirates, featuring the “Health in Your Hands platform for health innovations she co-founded. She co-developed a Girls Empowerment Camp in Africa, and has led trainings of community leaders and volunteers in psychosocial support worldwide after disasters, for example, in Haiti, Japan, China, St Maarten, Iran, and the US, as well as for Syrian refugees and during the Ebola epidemic. A member of the Board of Trustees of the United African Congress, she has co-produced innumerable events including a series on COVID-19 in Africa during the pandemic. Also a board member of the Library of American Broadcasting, she is a pioneer of radio call-in advice talk, a long-time television feature reporter, and magazine and newspaper columnist, for the Singapore Straits Times, the South China Morning Post, the New York Daily News.com and many others, currently for Black Star News. She has published innumerable articles in professional journals and her many books address healthy relationships and children’s adjustment, and co-edited books on disaster recovery, sexuality education, Ebola, ecopsychology and environmental protection. Her many awards include for Lifetime Achievement from the Society for Media Psychology and Technology of the American Psychological Association of which she is a lifetime member and fellow, as well as the Grand Commander of the Order of the Rokel of the Republic of Sierra Leone and the Humanitarian Award for Lifetime Achievement in Global Peace and Tolerance. Expert in practice, research and advocacy, she also serves as policy advisor to the Ambassador of Sierra Leone to the United States.

Dr. Uwe P. Gielen has written, edited, or co-edited 33 books. He grew up as a refugee in Germany and later earned his Ph.D. in Social Psychology from Harvard University. He is Former Executive Director of the Institute for International and Cross-Cultural Psychology and Professor-Emeritus of Psychology at St. Francis College, New York. His 33 edited/co-edited/co-authored books, which have appeared in five languages, deal with a broad range of psychological topics from an international and culturally informed perspective. Having lectured on more than 340 occasions in 34 countries, he has served as president of the Society for Cross-Cultural Research, the International Council of Psychologists, and APA’s Division of International Psychology as well as chair of the Psychology Section at the New York Academy of Sciences.

Dr. Daniel Kaplin is an Assistant Professor in the Psychology Department at St. Francis College and Co-founder and Director of its Forum on Migration. He received his doctoral degree in Clinical Psychology in 2014 from Walden University’s Department of Psychology. His research examines ways to improve the treatment and access to care for minority communities. Dr. Kaplin has served on numerous boards and committees at the local, state, and national levels. He was recently invited to guest edit an issue of the Journal of Infant, Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy on the topic of forced migration. Dr. Kaplin has received many awards and recognitions, which include being a Leadership Institute Fellow (2012), the DCRE Dissertation Award (2015), Distinguished Fellow at New York State Psychological Association (2017), and NYSPA’s Diversity Award (2018).