IPPA Council of Advisors

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Hans Henrik Knoop is Associate Professor with distinction, Director of the Positive Psychology Research Unit at Aarhus University, Denmark, and Extraordinary Professor, North West University, South Africa. His work is focused on flourishing in education, work, and society with a strong interdisciplinary approach. His research within positive psychology has involved thousands of educators and leaders and data on well-being from almost 300,000 Danish pupils. At Aarhus University he co-directs the Master Program of Positive Psychology with almost 600 students enrolled since 2011, and has hosted international conferences relating to education and positive psychology in Denmark in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2010, and 2017. He was the President of the European Network for Positive Psychology from 2010 to 2014 and served on the IPPA Board of Directors from 2009 to 2016. He was the host of the 5th ECPP in Copenhagen in 2010, and coresponsible for 6th ECPP in Moscow in 2012, and the 7th ECPP in Amsterdam in 2014. From 2007 to 2011 he was Research Director at the Universe Research Lab in Denmark heading a team of researchers focusing on combined engagement, excellence, and ethics in education, involving approximately 10.000 pupils, 1.500 teachers and 150 school leaders. From 2006-2009 he was academically responsible for the TV-program Plan B and follow-ups – focused on bringing positive psychology to bear on pupils with reading difficulty. The first series of the program ran for six weeks and reached a prime-time viewer share of one third of all Danes watching television, received the second highest viewer rating in the history of the TV-channel TV2 (Denmark’s largest at the time), with the first episode nominated for a Golden Rose in Montreux. From 1996 to 2010 he was heading the Nordic Branch of The GoodWork Project led by peers Howard Gardner, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and William Damon with comprehensive in-depth interviewing regarding excellence, engagement, and ethics, as understood by Nordic educators, leaders, journalists, and politicians including a European Commissioner, a Prime Minister and four other ministers. He has authored and co-authored more than 200 publications including 9 books. He has delivered more than thousand invited keynotes and lectures in Denmark and at conferences in Australia, Austria, Croatia, China, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Portugal, Russia, Scotland, South Africa, Slovenia, Spain, The Philippines, the U.K. and the U.S, and is a frequent commentator in newspapers, radio and television on matters of learning, creativity, ethics, and positive psychology.

Richard Layard is an economist who thinks there is more to happiness than just the economy. In 2005 he wrote the best-selling book Happiness: Lessons from a New Science, translated into 20 languages, and in 2014 a follow-up on mental health called Thrive. He has had huge influence in making psychological therapy more widely available in Britain’s National Health Service. But most important of all he is co-founder of Action for Happiness, an international movement to promote a happier way of living.

Charles Martin-Krumm is an elected member of the Board of Directors of the IPPA (International Positive Psychology Association), Master of Conference at STAPS, Professor of Physical and Sports Education and Sports Trainer. He teaches at the IUFM in Brittany, at the Cachan EPS High School and at the Institute of Training in Physical Education and Sport in Angers. His research focus on the study of processes in which optimism can be implicated in the contexts of education and sport. His works concern the study of interactions between optimism and various affective, cognitive, or behavioral variables.

Helena Agueda Marujo is a Professor at Instituto Superior de Ciências Sociais e Politicas (School of Social and Political Sciences), University of Lisbon, where she co-coordinates the Executive Master on Applied Positive Psychology and is a member of the research Center CAPP. She served in the scientific committees of the 1st and 2nd IPPA World Congresses, and the Positive Nations Conference (the 1st Portuguese Positive Psychology conference). She co-wrote seven books on Positive Psychology, namely one volume entitled “Positive Nations and Communities” (Springer). Helena is also an IPPA board member and President of the Portuguese Association of Positive Psychology (APPEIP).

Mario Mikulincer, PhD (Bar-Ilan University, 1985), is Professor of Psychology at the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya. He has published over 400 articles and book chapters, authored two books, and edited seven books on topics related to theory and research in attachment, terror management theory, emotional regulation, post-traumatic processes, and coping with stress situations. He served as Bar-Ilan University’s Head of the Department of Psychology (1994-1995), Head of the Interdisciplinary Studies Unit (2001-2004) and Dean of the University’s Regional Colleges (2004-2006). In 2007, he founded the Baruch Ivcher School of Psychology at the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya and served as dean of the school until 2014. He served as Vice President of Academic Affairs from 2014 to 2017. Prof. Mikulincer serves as editor of several leading journals in the field of personality and social psychology and was the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships (2010 In 2015.) In 2004, Mikulincer received the EMET Social Sciences Award for his contribution to the study of psychology.

Jeanne Nakamura is Associate Professor of Psychology at Claremont Graduate University. She received her B.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. She is cofounder with Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi of the positive psychology concentration and the Quality of Life Research Center at Claremont and is a past member of the board of the International Positive Psychology Association. She helped direct the Good Work Project, a series of studies of excellence and social responsibility in professional life. She investigates positive psychology in a lifespan developmental context, including vital engagement and creativity, mentoring and good work, and aging well. She is the coauthor of Good Mentoring and Creativity and Development and coeditor of Applied Positive Psychology. Her current writing and research address motivation and engagement in adulthood, the formative influences of mentoring and the formation of good mentors, and social innovation after sixty as a model for positive aging.

Ryan M. Niemiec, Psy.D. is a leading figure in the education, research, and practice of character strengths that are found in all human beings. He’s education director of the VIA Institute on Character, a global, nonprofit organization in Cincinnati that advances the latest science of character strengths. Ryan is author of 9 books including the practitioner-focused books, Character Strengths Interventions, Mindfulness and Character Strengths, and Positive Psychology at the Movies, as well as the 2019 consumer-oriented books The Power of Character Strengths and The Strengths-Based Workbook for Stress Relief. He’s penned over 80 scholarly or peer-reviewed articles and given over 700 presentations on positive psychology topics across the globe. He’s an award-winning psychologist, annual instructor at the University of Pennsylvania, adjunct professor at Xavier University, columnist for Live Happy magazine, and blogger for Psychology Today with over 1 million reads of his articles. Ryan received a “distinguished early career award” from the American Psychological Association in 2011 and was granted Fellow status of the International Positive Psychology Association in 2017.

She is an expert in well-being science, positive psychology, and organizational psychology with PhD training in research and evaluation and a background in nonprofit, program, and product management.

Vicki conducts and publishes research on well-being and her evidence-based consulting helps organizations with program and intervention design, applied research, evaluation, and training in the U.S., the Philippines, and internationally. She is passionate about helping others reach their full potential, especially those from marginalized groups, and specializes in the social impact sector and well-being, personal & professional development, workforce development, organizational development, and positive psychology interventions. In 2021, she was a recipient of the IPPA WOD Exemplary Research to Practice Award.

Vicki is a PhD Candidate in Positive Organizational Psychology with a co-concentration in Evaluation & Applied Research Methods at Claremont Graduate University and holds an MPA in Public & Nonprofit Management & Policy from New York University. She is based in Los Angeles, California.

She also held the position of Vice president for High School Education.  She has PhD in Humanisitic Studies from Tecnológico de Monterrey in Mexico and a Masters in Applied Positive Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania.  She has experience in leadership roles at Universities in Mexico where she has applied Positive Psychology in curricular plans for different age groups. She is representative for Latin America of the International Positive Education Network. Member of the Board for the “World Happiness Foundation”, “Pace begins with Children in Mexico” and “Education for Peace International” in Canada. Currently writes columns for different media outlets in Spanish.

CEO & Founder, Soaringwords

Lisa has shared her wisdom with thousands of people throughout the world. Three experiences with death and illness in her family during a ten-month period motivated her to launch Soaringwords, a not-for-profit organization devoted to inspiring children, families, adults, seniors, and health care professionals to take active roles in self-healing to experience greater physical, emotional, and mental well-being.

Since 2001, Lisa has shared Soaringwords’ SOARING into Strength Positive Health Initiatives with more than 500,000 people. She is the author of SOARING into Strength: Love Transcends Pain, her debut memoir.

Lisa graduated with honors from The University of Pennsylvania; holds an MBA in Marketing from Columbia University Graduate School of Business; and a Masters of Applied Positive Psychology from The University of Pennsylvania. She has a certificate in Narrative Medicine from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, and a certificate from the American Institute for Mental Imagery.

Lisa is President of IPPA Health and Wellbeing Division; and the Board of the Coincidence Project. She’s been featured as an expert on ABC News, Fortune Small Business, USA Today, Delta Sky, and CEO to Watch in The Chronicle of Philanthropy. She won a Lives That Make a Difference Award from A&E Networks, a National Mothering That Works Award from Working Mother Media, inducted into YMCA Academy of Women Achievers Hall of Fame. She was on the board of Advertising Women of New York, the leading organization for executive women in communications.

Lisa has been a keynote speaker, moderator, and panelist at IPPA; European Positive Psychology Conference; Canadian Positive Psychology Conference; International Positive Education Network and led workshops as scholar-in-residence and at grand rounds at leading universities, medical schools, and nursing schools. She has led award-winning employee-engagement professional development workshops at Fortune 500 companies including Accenture, Cigna, Cisco, Deloitte, Lilly, Meta, Google, Johnson & Johnson, JPMorgan Chase, New York Life, SONY, Verizon, and Viacom. Lisa lives in New York City with her husband Jacob. Her pride and joy are her two grown sons Jonathan and Joshua, daughter-in-law Evelyn, and adorable grandbaby Charlotte. She gets her energy from swimming each day and connecting with people in fun and meaningful ways.

Her Signature Character Strengths are: curiosity, creativity, and social intelligence! She aspires to be a lifelong learner, teacher and researcher, with a dream to aid others in leading more fulfilling lives. Her research interests mainly encompass studies on wisdom, positive development, bi-cultural identity, motivation and more. Her hobbies include GuZheng, Tai Chi, Synchronized swimming, piano, combat sports, yoga, and badminton!