IPPA Council of Advisors

Professor Willibald Ruch is a founding member of the International Positive Psychology Association (IPPA) and currently chair of the section of personality and assessment at the University of Zürich, Switzerland. He received his PhD from the University of Graz, Austria in 1980 and later worked at different universities in Germany, the UK and Switzerland. He taught various courses on personality and assessment at different universities (e.g. Düsseldorf, Berlin, Frankfurt, Belfast, Zürich) and he has authored about than 300 journal articles and book chapters and co-edited and co-written five books. Willibald is co-editing or on the editorial board of several journals (including Journal of Individual Differences, Journal of Research in Personality, Journal of Positive Psychology), and co-editor of two book series. Currently he is working on positive psychology traits (e.g., character strengths and virtues; orientations to happiness, cheerfulness, humor) in adults and children/adolescents and their role in contributing to the good life. He is the founder and current president the Swiss Positive Psychology Association (www.swippa.ch), IPPA Fellow and senior scientist at the VIA Institute of character.

Kamlesh Singh (Ph. D Psychology), joined the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi in 2004 and has about 20-year experience in research and teaching. Main areas of her research interest are positive psychology, applied positive psychology, psychometrics, community psychology, and rural women and adolescents. Kamlesh Singh has to her credit 65 published papers in the peer reviewed national and international journals and 14 book chapters. She has also presented about 60 papers at national and international conferences. She has been teaching courses like positive psychology and psychological testing at IIT Delhi, Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Indore and IIM Ranchi. With her ongoing teaching and various research projects in positive psychology, Kamlesh Singh is also on board of directors of the International Association of Positive Psychology (IPPA) and secretary and founder member of National Positive Psychology Association (NPPA). She has also recently joined as Associate Editor, Journal of the Indian Academy of Applied Psychology.

Dr. Philip Streit is a trained clinical and health psychologist, NLP Master Practitioner, Psychotherapist, Supervisor, and Social and Life Coach. He is Head of the Institute and the Academy for Child, Youth and Family (IKJF) e.U. in Graz, Austria, Director of the Institute for Positive Psychology and Mental Coaching, Coordinator for Seligman Europe, and a current member of the IPPA Board of Directors. Dr. Streit has been working actively in the field of positive psychology since 2009, specializing in psychological interventions for counseling, coaching and therapy.

As part of the positive psychological platform, Seligman Europe, Dr. Streit organized symposia, lectures, and seminars on positive psychology.  In 2011, he developed training for Applied Positive Psychology in German-speaking countries in collaboration with Prof. Martin Seligman and the University of Pennsylvania (USA)

That same year he founded the Institute for Positive Psychology and Mental Coaching in Graz, where he regularly conducts workshops and holds regular seminars entitled:  “Positive Psychology – practice-oriented concepts and interventions for school psychologists and school psychologists “and “Applied Positive Psychology – Positive Leadership.”

His current research includes a project of the Institute for Positive Psychology and Mental Coaching in cooperation with the Department of geriatric psychiatry at the Landesnervenklinik Sigmund Freud in Graz about wellbeing “A positive psychological intervention program for depressed people over 65 years.” He has also recently embarked on a project to develop the German version of Positive Psychotherapy Inventory (Rashid, 2013) and the PERMA profiler (Kern, 2012).

Margarita Tarragona is a psychologist who specializes in coaching and psychotherapy. She received her Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Chicago. She has been the director of the Instituto de Ciencias de la Felicidad Tecmilenio in Mexico, created the Diploma in Positive Psychology at the Universidad Iberoamericana and is on the faculty of the Certificate in Positive Psychology (CIPP) program for Latin America. She co-founded and teaches in Grupo Campos Elíseos, a training institute for psychotherapists.

In her work as a clinician and coach, Margarita incorporates scientific findings on human flourishing from positive psychology, with collaborative and narrative ways of working with clients to generate dialogue, expand their life stories and discover new possibilities. Margarita is on the advisory board of directors of IPPA, is the president of the Mexican Positive Psychology Society (SMPP) and is a global representative of IPEN, the International Positive Education Network. She publishes regularly, both in academic journals and books, and in popular media.

Dr George E. Vaillant is a Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and the Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital.  Dr. Vaillant has spent his research career charting adult development and the recovery process of schizophrenia, heroin addiction, alcoholism, and personality disorder.  He spent 35 years as Director of the Study of Adult Development at the Harvard University Health Service.  The study has prospectively charted the lives of 824 men and women for almost 70 years.  His published works include Adaptation to Life, 1977, The Wisdom of The Ego, 1993, The Natural History of Alcoholism-Revisited, 1995, and Aging Well, 2002, Spiritual Evolution, 2008 and Triumphs of Experience, 2012

A graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Medical School, Dr. Vaillant did his residency at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center and completed his psychoanalytic training at the Boston Psychoanalytic Institute. He has been a Fellow at the Center for the Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, is a Fellow of the American College of Psychiatrists and a founding member of Positive Psychology.  A major focus of his work in the past has been individual adult development; more recently he has been interested in positive emotions and their relationship to community development. He is a past Class A trustee of Alcoholics Anonymous and is currently on the Steering Committee of Positive Psychology. Dr. Vaillant has received the Foundations Fund Prize for Research in Psychiatry from the American Psychiatric Association, the Strecker Award from The Institute of Pennsylvania Hospital, and the Jellinek Award for research in alcoholism.  Most recently he received The Distinguished Service Award from the American Psychiatric Association.

Professor Robert J. Vallerand is Full Professor of Psychology at the Université du Québec à Montréal. He has published 8 books and well over 350 scientific articles and book chapters. His research focuses on motivational processes and especially passion for activities. He has served as President of the Canadian Psychological Association and the International Positive Psychology Association. He served as President of the 2^nd World Congress on Positive Psychology (Philadelphia, 2011). He is a Fellow of more than 15 associations, including the American Psychological Association (and Fellow of 5 APA Divisions), the Association for Psychological Science, and many others. He has received numerous awards, including the Christopher Peterson Gold Medal Award from the International Positive Psychology Association, the William James Award from the American Psychological Association for his 2015 book, The Psychology of Passion with Oxford University Press, and the Sport Science Award from the International Olympic Committee.

Professor Dianne Vella-Brodrick (PhD) is a Professor and Deputy Director at the Centre for Positive Psychology at the Melbourne Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne. She is also Head of Research and the inaugural Director of the Master of Applied Positive Psychology program (2013 – 2015) at the Centre for Positive Psychology. Dianne is a Member of the Australian Psychological Society and College of Health Psychologists, and an inaugural Editor in Chief of the Psychology of Well-Being journal (2011-2016).  She has served as Treasurer and Secretary of the International Positive Psychology Association (IPPA) and is currently on the IPPA Council of Advisors.  Dianne founded the Australian Positive Psychology Network and has co-directed three Australian Positive Psychology and Well-being conferences. Her work is well published in scientific journals and she has received 2.8 million dollars of funding including three Australian Research Council grants. She has worked with not for profit organisations, schools from all sectors, community services and large commercial organisations to assess and promote well-being for all. She is especially interested in enhancing the well-being of individuals and groups by working in partnership with them to listen to their experiences, understand their needs and co-create well-being programs that consider the whole person and the complex system in which they interact. Dianne’s methods are diverse and include the latest technological advances for health promotion and building resilience. She also integrates ethical and professional practice issues in much of her work and has extensive experience with scale development.

Professor Lea Waters (PhD) holds the Gerry Higgins Chair in Positive Psychology and is the Director of the Centre for Positive Psychology at the University of Melbourne. Lea a registered psychologist (AHPRA), a full member of the Australian Psychological Society (APS) and a full member of the APS College of Organisational Psychologist. Lea holds an Affiliate position with Cambridge University’s Wellbeing Institute in the United Kingdom and the Centre for Positive Organizations at the University of Michigan in the United Kingdom. She is the Chair of the Scientific Committee for the 4^th World Congress of Positive Psychology.

Lea is internationally recognised for her research and has published and presented in the United Kingdom, Canada, U.S.A., Asia and Europe. She has published over 70 scientific articles and book chapter as well as speaking at over 100 academic conferences. She is a regular contributor to the Journal of Positive Psychology.

Lea was named the Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management Educator of the Year in 2004, received an Australian University Individual Teaching Excellence Award from the Prime Minister in 2007 as well as team Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning from the Australian Government’s Office for Teaching and Learning in 2013.

Mathew White PhD is President of the Education Division for IPPA and an Ex Officio Member of the IPPA Council of Advisors.

Mathew is an Australian academic and Associate Professor (Level D: Reader) in the School of Education at the University of Adelaide. He is a member of the School of Education’s Leadership Team and the Program Director for the Master of Education degree where he lectures on educational leadership, and wellbeing education. He is also a Principal Fellow in the Melbourne Graduate School of Education and an Associate Professor at the University of Melbourne.

He is a member of the Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE), Australian Teacher Education Association (ATEA), American Educational Research Association (AERA) and British Educational Research Association (BERA).

Mathew has published research and co-edited three ground-breaking books on wellbeing education including:

• Future Directions in Wellbeing: Education, Organizations, and Policy (Springer, 2017)
• Flourishing in Faith: Theology Encountering Positive Psychology. Cascade Books. Wipf and Stock Publishers, Eugene, Oregon.
• Evidence-Based Approaches in Positive Education Implementing a Strategic Framework for Well-being in Schools (Springer, 2015)

His next book Wellbeing Education and Professional Practice – Transforming Teaching is co-authored with Professor Faye McCallum (Springer, 2020).

He is a member of the Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE), Australian Teacher Education Association (ATEA), American Educational Research Association (AERA) and British Educational Research Association (BERA).

He is a Council Appointed Member of the School Council of St Peter’s Woodlands Grammar School, Past Chair of the Positive Education Schools Association South Australian Chapter (2017-19) and Past Secretary (2016). He is a Global Representative for the International Positive Education Network (IPEN).

Before his appointment to the University of Adelaide, Mathew held senior leadership positions in schools for a decade. He has over 20 years of teaching experience and is a Fellow of the Australian College of Educators.

Professor Marié P. Wissing is research professor in the Africa Unit for Trans-disciplinary Health Research (AUTHeR) at the North-West University in South Africa. She has teaching experience in clinical, general and Positive Psychology (PP) at various South African and European universities. She developed a research programme in Psychofortology (i. e. the science of psychological strengths; FORT) including several funded team projects, with also links to multidisciplinary projects. Her current research focus is on the understanding, measurement and promotion of psychosocial well-being and strengths in diverse contexts, with emphasis on meaning, goals, relational wellbeing, and cultures of positivity. She is a member of the international Eudaimonic-Hedonic Happiness Investigation (EHHI) project lead by Antonella Delle Fave.  Marié is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Happiness studies, and a member of the editorial board of several other disciplinary journals. Her scientific output includes peer reviewed articles, chapters in scientific books, and books including Well-being Research in South Africa.  She initiated the First PP Conference in South Africa, and the first master’s degree in Positive Psychology in Africa. 115 masters and doctoral degree students completed their studies under her (co-)supervision. She is on the Council of Advisors for the International Positive Psychology Association (IPPA).

Dr. Yukun Zhao is the vice director of the Positive Psychology Research Center at Tsinghua University, China. He received his Ph.D. from Tsinghua University, and Master of Applied Positive Psychology from University of Pennsylvania. His main research interests are positive education, especially growth mindset and learning motivations. He organizes events like China International Positive Psychology Conferences, founds organizations like the Beijing Positive Psychology Association, develops programs like Positive Education that has been applied in more than 100 schools, and oversees the Positive Psychology Certificate Program at Tsinghua University that has trained more than 1000 people. His positive psychology MOOC has been watched by tens of thousands of people. He has published five books in China and edited/translated four books.