UW-Green Bay’s Prof. Gurung to serve as president of international Psychology Honor Society

Regan A. R. Gurung

Green Bay, Wis. — University of Wisconsin-Green Bay Human Development and Psychology Professor Regan A. R. Gurung, Ph.D. has been elected to serve as the head of the international honor society in psychology Psi Chi. Gurung will serve for three years beginning as president-elect in 2018-2019, then as president in 2019-2020, and finally as past president from 2020-2021.

“I am passionate about Psi Chi. I love what it has accomplished for students and the field, and I am excited about what more it can do. Psychology can help each and every one of us live healthier, happier lives,” Gurung said.

Gurung is the founding faculty advisor of UW-Green Bay’s Psi Chi chapter. At UW-Green Bay, he has served as the chair of Psychology and Human Development programs, and as the associate dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences. He is an award-winning teacher — receiving the Carnegie Association’s Wisconsin Professor of the Year, the UW System Regents Teaching Award, the UW-Green Bay Founder’s Award for Excellence in Teaching and Founder’s Award for Scholarship and was the 2017 recipient of the American Psychological Foundation’s Charles Brewer Award for Distinguished Career in Teaching Psychology (the field’s highest teaching award). He is also a fellow of the American Psychological Association and the Association for Psychological Science.

Gurung is also an author of several presentations, papers and books, including a TED Talk, and serves as the co-editor for several publications including the “Worth Expert Handbooks for Student Success” and the journal “Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Psychology” He has authored, coauthored, edited or coedited 15 books and more than 150 articles and book chapters.

A previous member of the Psi Chi International Honor Society Board of Directors (2012-2016), Gurung has also previously served as Psi Chi’s vice president for the Midwest region, on the society’s faculty advisory panel and on its National Leadership Conference planning committee, the group’s external relations committee, and its research grants committee. Gurung said he hopes to make Psi Chi a home for passionate teachers, and the “go-to place” for bright, hardworking students.

“I envision strategies to advance the Psi Chi mission of “recognizing and promoting the science and application of psychology.” Together with encouraging professional and personal development, I want to energize member’s scholarly pursuits, and improve chapter experiences,” Gurung said. “It is important to help make it easier for psychology majors to find jobs and to develop the skills they need to do well in school and work.

Psi Chi has more than 1,150 chapters in the United States and abroad primarily serving undergraduates, but with grant programs for undergraduates, graduates and alumni members.

Gurung was born and raised in Bombay, India. He came to the United States to further his education and went on to receive his Master’s and Ph.D. in Social/Personality Psychology at the University of Washington in Seattle. He lives in the Green Bay-area with his wife, Martha, and their two children, Liam and Melina. Gurung received his bachelor’s in Psychology at Carleton College (MN) and a Ph.D. in social/personality psychology at the University of Washington. After a postdoc as a health psychologist at UCLA, he got his first academic job at the UW-Green Bay where he has been since 1999.

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Release written by freelance writer Liz Carey