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Sean Paul Abrahams, Ph.D. (in review) ( Through 2029 ) Director, UCT Flourish Programme University of Cape Town, South Africa

Sean Paul Abrahams is a visionary in African positive psychology and Director of the UCT Flourish Programme. More

He is also the Founding Strategic Lead of the Centre for Wellbeing and Flourishing at the University of Cape Town. His PhD (currently under examination) introduced the GRIT Paradox Equation, redefining grit as a balance between resilience and wellbeing—especially in high-pressure, inequitable academic contexts.

He founded the Flourishing Future Foundation, and Student of Potential and has delivered positive psychology-based interventions nationwide for over a decade. In partnership with Professor Gabriele Oettingen, he led the translation of the WOOP app into all 11 South African languages—bridging global research with real-world access across the country.

Sean also developed the NARMA Model of Languishing and the TURN Method, two original frameworks that shift individuals and institutions from survival to sustainable flourishing. He is co-chair of the inaugural Wellbeing and Flourishing Conference at the University of Cape Town, the creator of the UCT Flourish Summit—South Africa’s first platform spotlighting student-led wellbeing narratives—and co-chair of the second African Positive Psychology Conference, to be held in 2026.

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Marei Ahmed, Ph.D. ( Through 2028 ) Professor of Psychology Ajman University, UAE

2022-now, Professor, Psychology department, Humanities and Sciences College, Ajman University More

2017-2022 Associate member, Laboratoire Cognitions Humaine et Artificielle (Chart‐UPON, EA 4004), Universite Paris Nanterre, France.

(2007-2016) Researcher/Associate researcher, LAUREPS- CRPCC-Rennes 2 University, France.

(2011) Ph.D, Psychology (LP3C), Rennes 2 University, France.

(2005) Ph.D, Psychology (STAPS school), Rennes 2 University, France.

Research activities: Published more than 115 papers, international conferences, books, chapters over the world.

(2015-2019) Board of director in the International Positive Psychology Association

(IPPA). (2013-2025) Representative of the Arabic countries in the International Positive Psychology Association IPPA.

(2011-Now) Editorial Board, Reviewer and in Scientific Committee for International and European conferences and Journals (i.e., JPS, ECPP2016,….).

2010: Talents and competences Researcher (Competences et Talents), France. Qualified as Assistant professor in three sections: Psychology, Education Sciences and STAPS from CNRS (France)

Field of interests: Positive Psychology, Psychometric, Sport and Exercise psychology.

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Marei-Salama-Younes-2

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8014-9646

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Meike Bartels, Ph.D. ( Ex Officio ) University Research Chair Professor, Genetics and Well-being The Department of Biological Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Netherlands

Meike Bartels (1973) is University Research Chair Professor in Genetics and Well-being at the Department of Biological Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands. More

After an internship at the Queensland Institute of Medical Research in Brisbane, Australia, she graduated at the Vrije Universiteit. Her master degree is in Physiological Psychology, with special focus on Behavior Genetics.

She obtained her PhD degree in 2003. She spent the last months of her PhD at the Virginia Institute of Psychiatric and Behavior Genetics, Richmond, VA, USA. In 2014, she was appointed as full-professor under the competitive and honorary University Research Chair program of the VU.

She published over 200 papers in peer-reviewed journal including the first molecular genetic evidence for well-being in PNAS and the first genomic variant for well-being in Nature Genetics. She was awarded a prestigious European Research Council Consolidator grant to build, expand, and consolidate her line of research on Genetics and Well-being. She is the president of the Behavior Genetics Associations and was awarded both the BGA Thompson award for outstanding PhD research and the BGA Fuller/Scott Award for her outstanding scientific accomplishments early in her career.

She is the President-Elect of IPPA and was honored with the status of fellow in 2017 in recognition of outstanding contributions to the advancement of positive psychology.  She leads a team of researcher with a focus on the causes of individual differences in wellbeing.

She combines research with teaching and is the Director of the Research Master Genes in Behaviour and Health, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam.

a) Why did you join IPPA:

To my opinion IPPA is the international association to join to connect with a large variety of people around the world who are all interested in wellbeing. It is a platform that enables international collaboration and the translation of research findings to practical applications. I joined to meet new people to inspire each other, learn from each other, and collaborate to make the world a better place!

b) Why did you agree to serve on the IPPA Board of Directors:

As a researcher I support IPPAs mission to have research and evidence-based approaches as the backbone of the association and the field. To help the association to keep this focus and to support the mission to bring people together, I joined the board. Furthermore, I’m a strong believer in international collaborations and diversity as a catalyst for change and do my best to support worldwide inclusion.

c) What is something memorable or something you have gained from being part of IPPA:

I very much enjoy the positivity and the atmosphere at the international conferences. The wide scope, the combination of research and practice, the international setting, and the wonderful people make me already looking forward to the next conference. I’ve met so many wonderful people over the past years that I cannot imagine not being part of IPPA!

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Roy Baumeister, Ph.D. ( Ex Officio ) Professor of Psychology University of Queensland, Australia, United States

Professor Roy F. Baumeister is currently professor of psychology at the University of Queensland, as well as affiliations with Florida State University and University of Bamberg. More

He grew up in Cleveland, the oldest child of a schoolteacher and an immigrant businessman. He received his Ph.D. in social psychology from Princeton in 1978 and did a postdoctoral fellowship in sociology at the University of California at Berkeley.

He spent over two decades at Case Western Reserve University, where he eventually was the first to hold the Elsie Smith professorship. He has also worked at the University of Texas, the University of Virginia, the Max-Planck-Institute, the VU Free University of Amsterdam, the University of California at Santa Barbara, the Russell Sage Foundation, and Stanford’s Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences.

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Rosalinda Ballesteros Valdés, Ph.D. ( Ex Officio ) Director for the Institute for Wellbeing and Happiness Universidad Tecmilenio, Mexico

Rosalinda Ballesteros is currently Director for the Institute for Wellbeing and Happiness at Universidad Tecmilenio. More

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.

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Ilona Boniwell, Ph.D., MAPP ( Ex Officio ) Senior Lecturer in Positive Psychology; Program Leader, MAPP University of East London, United Kingdom, United Kingdom

Positran is directed by Dr Ilona Boniwell, one of the world leaders in the field of positive psychology, who founded and headed the first Masters Degree in Applied Positive Psychology (MAPP) in Europe. More

Positran is directed by Dr Ilona Boniwell, one of the world leaders in the field of positive psychology, who founded and headed the first Masters Degree in Applied Positive Psychology (MAPP) in Europe. Nowadays, she heads the International MSc in Applied Positive Psychology (I-MAPP) at Anglia Ruskin University (UK and France), teaches Positive Management at l’Ecole Centrale Paris and HEC Business School, writes a monthly column for Psychologies (UK and Russia), and consults around the world as a director of Positran. Her main teaching expertise lies in the areas of positive psychology and positive scholarship, with research interests around: subjective time use, time perspective, eudaimonic well-being and applications of positive psychology to business, one-to-one work, and education.

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Leona Brandwene, MAPP ( Through 2028 ) Associate Director, Master of Applied Positive Psychology Program University of Pennsylvania, USA

Leona Brandwene, MAPP, PCC, serves as the Associate Director for the MAPP program, and works alongside the stellar MAPP instructional team to ensure a world-class educational experience for students in positive psychology. More

Leona Brandwene, MAPP, PCC, serves as the Associate Director for the MAPP program, and works alongside the stellar MAPP instructional team to ensure a world-class educational experience for students in positive psychology. She supports program strategy, operations, planning, and development. Along with her work in positive psychology, Leona is a coach and consultant in health care, with a particular emphasis on building cultures that enable high-performing teams in quality and safety. She loves running, family, and supporting youth sports in her community, particularly crewing for her triathlete daughter, Sophie. She lives in Lancaster County with her husband Josh and 15-year-old daughter.

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Jenny Brennan, MAPP ( Through 2027 ) Nonprofit Consultant, Practitioner , USA

Jenny C. Brennan, MAPP, is a nonprofit consultant, strategist, and positive psychology practitioner, whose work advances the application of positive psychology at both the individual and systems levels to support human and societal flourishing. More

Jenny C. Brennan, MAPP, is a nonprofit consultant, strategist, and positive psychology practitioner, whose work advances the application of positive psychology at both the individual and systems levels to support human and societal flourishing.

Currently, Ms. Brennan provides educational resources and consultation to nonprofits that want to apply positive psychology science to their programming. She also serves as Director of Year-Round Programming to the International Positive Psychology Association (IPPA), where she oversees year-round programming, leads a team of consultants and volunteers, contributes to numerous capacity-building and communication initiatives, and produces the Positive Psychology Leader Series.

Ms. Brennan has 20 years of experience managing award-winning integrated marketing and public education campaigns for organizations such as the American Red Cross, University of Pennsylvania, and Lifetime Television’s Stop Violence Against Women initiative. Her work helped to impact policy and to inspire measurable action on the part of consumers. In 2012, she became one of the first 250 people in the world to earn a Master of Applied Positive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania.

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Vicki Cabrera, MPA ( Ex Officio ) Claremont Graduate University, USA

Vicki Cabrera is a well-being and social impact consultant. More

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.

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Kim Cameron, Ph.D. ( Ex Officio ) William Russell Kelly Professor of Management and Organizations and Professor of Higher Education in the School of Education University of Michigan, United States

Professor Kim Cameron is the William Russell Kelly Professor of Management and Organizations at the Ross School of Business as well as Professor of Higher Education in the School of Education, both at the University of Michigan. More

Past assignments include serving as Associate Dean of Executive Education for the Ross School, serving as Dean and Albert J. Weatherhead Professor of Management in the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University, and Associate Dean and Ford Motor Company/Richard E. Cook Professor in the Marriott School of Management at Brigham Young University. He has also served as a department chair at the University of Michigan, and served on the faculties of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Ricks College.

Dr. Cameron organized and directed the Organizational Studies Division of the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems in Boulder, Colorado.  He helped co-found the Center for Positive Organizational Scholarship at the University of Michigan, which in 2012 was awarded the Research Center Impact Award by the Academy of Management.  This award recognizes researchers/ research centers that have made a major impact on real world management practice.

Dr. Cameron’s past research on organizational virtuousness, downsizing, effectiveness, quality culture, and the development of leadership excellence has been published in more than 120 academic articles and 15 scholarly books.  He was recently recognized as being among the top 10 scholars in the organizational sciences whose work has been most frequently downloaded from Google.  His current research focuses on the virtuousness of and in organizations, and their relationships to organizational success.

Dr. Cameron received BS and MS degrees from Brigham Young University and MA and PhD degrees from Yale University.  He served on the National Research Council, was president of Bay Asset Funding Corporation, and was a Fulbright Distinguished Scholar.  He is a graduate of Leadership Cleveland, Class of 2000 and a recipient of the Organizational Behavior Teaching Society’s Outstanding Educator Award.  He currently consults with a variety of business, government, and educational organizations in North America, South America, Asia, Africa, and Europe.


a) Why did you join IPPA:

IPPA provides me with the most up-to-date research and practice regarding positive psychology and positive organizational scholarship.   The network of scholars and practitioners throughout the world is unparalleled, and the bi-annual congress keeps me up to date in a way I could not achieve by myself.  Additional benefits such as podcasts and the chance to disseminate the work of the Center for Positive Organizations is also a big plus.

b) Why did you agree to serve on the IPPA Board of Directors:
I am eager to help build this organization into a highly influential global network of scholars and practitioners.  The mission of IPPA and the extraordinary individuals who are associated with IPPA, and especially who are leading the organization and its divisions, provide positive energy, learning, and   insight for me.  That’s selfish, I know, but it supplements nicely the chance to contribute a bit.

c) What is something memorable or something you have gained from being part of IPPA:
The one factor that trumps all others is the chance to know and interact with spectacular scholars, practitioners, and leaders.  I would never have encountered these folks without IPPA.

David Cooperrider, Ph.D. ( Through 2028 ) Fairmont Minerals Professor of Social Entrepreneurship Case Western Reserve University, USA

David serves as faculty Director of the Fowler Center for Business as an Agent of World Benefit. David is best known for his pioneering theory on Appreciative Inquiry and has served as advisor to senior executives in business and societal leadership roles, including projects with five Presidents and Nobel Laureates More

David serves as faculty Director of the Fowler Center for Business as an Agent of World Benefit. David is best known for his pioneering theory on Appreciative Inquiry and has served as advisor to senior executives in business and societal leadership roles, including projects with five Presidents and Nobel Laureates such as William Jefferson Clinton, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Kofi Annan and others. In 2017 David received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the OD Network. Uniting theory and practice, Cooperrider has served as strategic advisor to a wide variety of organizations including Apple, Verizon, Johnson & Johnson, National Grid, Fairmount Minerals, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Sherwin Williams, Dealer Tire, Wal-Mart as well as American Red Cross, American Hospital Association, Cleveland Clinic, United Way.

David was named as Distinguished University Professor in 2016 and has published over 20 books and authored over 100 articles and book chapters. He served as editor of both the Journal of Corporate Citizenship with Ron Fry and the current research series for Advances for Appreciative Inquiry, with Michel Avital. In 2010 David was awarded the Peter F. Drucker Distinguished Fellow by the Drucker School of Management. Most recently, Champlain College honored David with an academic center called the David L. Cooperrider Center for Appreciative Inquiry. For the Center’s dedication Marty Seligman wrote: “David Cooperrider is a giant: a giant of discovery, a giant of dissemination, and a giant of generosity” while Harvard’s Jane Nelson at the Kennedy School of Leadership said: “David Cooperrider is one of the outstanding scholar-practitioners of our generation.”

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Antonella Delle Fave, M.D. ( Through 2029 ) Professor of Psychology at the Faculty of Medicine University of Milano, Italy

Antonella Delle Fave, MD specialized in Clinical Psychology, is professor of Psychology at the Medical School, University of Milano, Italy. Her research activities are primarily focused on the investigation of flow experience, daily experience fluctuation, and well-being across cultures and among individuals exposed to conditions of diversity and adversity. More

Antonella Delle Fave, MD specialized in Clinical Psychology, is professor of Psychology at the Medical School, University of Milano, Italy. Her research activities are primarily focused on the investigation of flow experience, daily experience fluctuation, and well-being across cultures and among individuals exposed to conditions of diversity and adversity. Through her field work she contributed to building the largest international data bank on flow experience, collecting information in four continents among a variety of participants, including shepherds and farmers, artists, scientists, teachers, health professionals, members of spiritual communities and religious congregations, persons with mental and physical disabilities, and persons experiencing marginalization such as street children, homeless people and illegal migrants. During the last ten years, together with colleagues from 18 countries she has been implementing the “Eudaimonic and Hedonic Happiness Investigation” project, devoted to the study of well-being across cultures. She has been conducting research and intervention projects aimed at identifying and mobilizing psychological and social resources among persons with chronic diseases and their family caregivers.

More recently, the acquisition of a Master degree in the traditional medical system of Ayurveda led her to develop collaborations with Indian researchers and clinicians, aimed at exploring pathways of integration between Western science and Ayurveda, in order to expand knowledge and improve management of psychophysical health and disease. Her scientific production includes papers in international peer-reviewed journals, as well as authored and edited international books. She actively contributed to the international promotion and dissemination of positive psychology and well-being research as President of the International Positive Psychology Association (IPPA), the European Network of Positive Psychology (ENPP), and the Società Italiana di Psicologia Positiva (SIPP). Since 2010 she is serving as Editor in Chief of the Journal of Happiness Studies.