European Society for Research in Adult Development
Executive Board
|
President
Dr. Clare M. Mehta PhD Professor of Psychology, Emmanuel College, USA, Academic Visitor, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK Originally from the U.K., Dr. Clare M. Mehta is currently an Associate Professor in Psychology at Emmanuel College in Boston and a Staff Scientist in the Division for Adolescent Medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital. Dr. Mehta holds a Master of Research in Education from the University of Bath (U.K.), and a Master of Science and PhD in Lifespan Developmental Psychology from West Virginia University (U.S.A). For the last twenty years, Dr. Mehta’s main research area was gender, gender identity, and social relationships in adulthood. Her current research focus is Established Adulthood, the period of development from 30-45. Dr. Mehta’s work has been published in American Psychologist, Sex Roles, Developmental Review, and the Journal of Sex Research. She is past president of the American Psychological Association’s Division 1, the Society for General Psychology, and serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Adult Development. |
|
Vice President
Teresa Maria Sgaramella PhD Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy, Sociology, Education and Applied Psychology. University of Padova, Italy My academic activity combines teaching, research, and international collaboration in the areas of developmental psychology, rehabilitation counselling, and career development. I teach undergraduate and graduate courses in Psychology of Adult Development Across Cultures, Developmental Psychology, and Rehabilitation Counselling. My research integrates theoretical and applied perspectives to investigate how individual and systemic psychological resources—including socio-emotional skills, time perspective, and resilience—support wellbeing and life and career development across the lifespan. Methodologically, my work includes both quantitative and qualitative approaches, with a strong applied focus on intervention design for vulnerable populations. I am actively involved in European projects on innovation in higher education and professional training and I currently lead the International SEEDS Young Researchers Network on positive and integrative development and support across the lifespan. |
|
Honorary President
Oliver Robinson, PhD Professor, Regent's University, London I am the author of "Development through Adulthood: An integrative sourcebook", published by Palgrave Macmillan. My own empirical research focuses on how major life transitions and crises affect emotional development, ego development and identity development, and how adult development concepts can be applied in various contexts. I use qualitative, quantitative and mixed-methods, and write on the philosophy of methodology. My most recent book came out in 2018 on how science and spirituality relate in the context of dialectical thinking and adult development >>> |
|
Treasurer
Nick Shannon, MA, MBA, MSc, C Psychol, AFBPsS Founder and Principal, Management Psychology Limited, London Nick Shannon is the founder and principal of Management Psychology Limited, a UK based practice specializing in organizational and management development. Nick is a Chartered Psychologist, a member of the British Psychological Society and a founding member of the Association of Business Psychologists. Nick’s varied career has involved working variously as a commodity and derivatives trader, a director of a foreign exchange business, and a restaurateur. Working as a consultant to organisations in the private and public sectors for the last 20 years, Nick believes passionately in the value of a combination of philosophical inquiry and rigorous scientific methodology. He has a particular interest in the cognitive and emotional transitions that managers must make in order to work effectively at successively higher levels of complexity and hierarchy. His work with clients involves coaching and facilitation to develop more effective management teams with a focus on improving organisational performance and providing a better environment for their staff. |
|
Secretary
Megan Wright, PhD Leverhulme Early Career Fellow, University of Nottingham Megan Wright is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the University of Nottingham in the U.K. Dr Wright holds a PhD from the University of York on psychological markers of adult development. Her current research focus is the relation between perceived markers of adult status, adult identity, and wellbeing. Recent publications and pre-prints can be found here (https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Megan_Wright23/research). |
|
Board Member
Marc Lucas, PhD, MBA, Professor, Media University, Cologne, Germany Marc Lucas is a professor of psychology at Media University in Cologne, Germany, as well as the founder of Lucoco Lucas Consulting & Counselling. His main interests are the integration of diverse fields such as adult development in leadership, education, and organization; organizational trauma prevention; crisis management; arts-inspired qualitative research; and integrative and integral meta-theorizing. |
|
Board Member
Salla Ahola, PhD Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Tampere University, Finland Dr. Salla Ahola earned her PhD in social psychology from the University of Helsinki. Her longstanding research interests include personal values and knowledge-related issues such as epistemic cognition and stances towards expert knowledge. She is currently affiliated with Tampere University, at the Faculty of Management and Business, where her research has focused on wellbeing at work among employees and entrepreneurs. |
|
Board Member
Katja Hleb, MSc. Psych PhD Candidate, University of Ljubljana Katja Hleb holds university and MSc degrees in Psychology, as well as a university degree (Bologna Master) in Kinesiology. She is currently a PhD candidate at the Faculty of Economics, University of Ljubljana. Her main interdisciplinary research focus is leadership, examined through the lens of developmental psychology, with particular attention to orders of consciousness. Her research explores how top executives develop as leaders and how this development influences their leadership style and the organizations they lead. She has 25 years of experience in executive search, selection, and development, along with extensive experience in advising and actively participating in the design and implementation of advanced human potential management strategies and practices. She has operated across eight Central and Eastern European countries in multiple industries, including pharmaceuticals, finance, IT and telecommunications, and FMCG. She has developed and authored a PDP program aimed at supporting founders, owners, and top executives in defining personal purpose and career development paths, and has implemented more than 70 PDPs for high-level executives internationally. She has lectured at numerous HR conferences and authored more than 100 articles for management and entrepreneurship-oriented media. She is a certified mediator at the Court of Justice of the Republic of Slovenia and has served as President of the National Committee responsible for proposing and selecting members of the supervisory boards of major state-owned enterprises within the Slovenian State Holding (SDH) |
|
Board Member
Cansu Hazal Güçlü Assistant Professor, Başkent University, Türkiye. Cansu Hazal Güçlü is an assistant professor of Educational Psychology, in the Division of Guidance and Psychological Counselling at Başkent University, Türkiye. Her research interest includes psychological variables related to education in emerging adulthood with a particular focus on student engagement, school burnout, resilience, and self-regulation, higher education, parents of university students and emerging adulthood. Hazal is committed to advancing research that fosters lifelong learning and psychological well-being. |
Vice Members
|
Vice Member
Natalia Waechter, PhD Professor, University of Graz, Austria My research focuses on young people, young adults, and generations; educational and social inequalities; youth/social work; digitalization of young people’s life worlds; identity and development; migration and ethnic minorities; and international comparative quantitative and qualitative studies. Currently, leading the EU research project “EDU-LAB” (2025-2027) at Uni Graz, I am investigating educational pathways and the transition to the labor market experienced by young people aged 15-30. I am president and founding member of the Austrian Sociology of Youth, as well as editorial board member of the journals Emerging Adulthood (Sage) and Youth and Globalization (Brill). |
|
Vice Member
Jeffrey Jensen Arnett, PhD Professor, Clark University Jeffrey Jensen Arnett is the leading authority in the world on the age period from 18 to 29 that he named emerging adulthood. Dr. Arnett is a Senior Research Scholar in the Department of Psychology at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. During 2005 he was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, and in 2017-18 he was a Visiting Professor at the University of Bordeaux, France. He is the author of the book Emerging Adulthood: The Winding Road from the Late Teens Through the Twenties, now in its 3rd edition, published in 2024 by Oxford University Press. He founded the Society for the Study of Emerging Adulthood (www.ssea.org) and served as its first Executive Director. He has also served as President of Division 1 of the American Psychological Association (General Psychology). Arnett has two children, twins Miles and Paris, born in 1999, and his wife, Lene Jensen, is also a professor at Clark. He has appeared on national television and frequently in print media, including a cover story in the New York Times Sunday Magazine in August, 2010. His book (with Elizabeth Fishel) for parents of emerging adults, Getting to 30: A Parents Guide to the Twentysomething Years, was published in May 2013. For more information, see www.jeffreyarnett.com. |
|
Vice Member
Ana Fritzhand, PhD Professor, University of Skopje I am a full professor at the Institute of Psychology, Faculty of Philosophy, “Ss. Cyril and Methodius” University in Skopje, North Macedonia. My key research interests are in the field of developmental psychology (lifespan perspective), moral psychology, and psychology of peace and conflict. I have obtained several scholarships for professional development, among which Junior Faculty Development Program (JFDP) - scholarship sponsored by the U.S. State Department, scholarships from Jacobs Foundation, CEEPUS international teacher mobility scholarship, research mobility through the COORDINATE Transnational Access Visit (TAV) program etc. Until recently I was the Head of the Institute of Psychology at the Faculty of Philosophy in Skopje (2017-2024), the vice-president of the Chamber of Psychologists of the Republic of North Macedonia (one mandate), and am currently completing the second mandate as a member of the Board of the Chamber. At the same time, I am a member of several international societies/associations in the field of developmental psychology, a member of the University Committee for Self-Evaluation and the University Committee for Cooperation with Universities from the Country and Abroad (International Cooperation). |
|
Vice Member
Deborah Bailey-Rodriguez, PhD Senior Lecturer, Middlesex University My research focuses on couple relationship functioning and satisfaction, including adult attachment, emotional labour, and wellbeing, with a particular interest in adult development across the lifespan. I use qualitative approaches, including qualitatively-driven mixed methods (such as pluralistic qualitative research), as well as visual and creative methodologies, working within interdisciplinary frameworks to explore adult relational and psychological processes. I am currently a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Middlesex University and Programme Leader for the MSc Psychological Therapies and Interventions. Previously, I served as Editor-in-Chief of the British Psychological Society’s Qualitative Methods in Psychology Bulletin journal for three years. |
Other Roles
|
Communications and Website Manager
Valentina Lucia La Rosa, PhD Adjunct Professor, University of Catania, Italy Dr. Valentina Lucia La Rosa is an adjunct professor in Developmental and Educational Psychology at the University of Catania, Italy. Her research focuses on adolescence and emerging adulthood, with particular attention to attachment processes, emotion regulation, future orientation, psychological well-being, and relational contexts across development. |
|
Communications Administrator
H. Kübra Özdoğan PhD candidate, Research Assistant, Başkent University, Türkiye H. Kübra Özdoğan is a doctoral candidate in Psychological Counseling and Guidance at Hacettepe University and a research assistant at Başkent University, Türkiye. Her research interests include emerging adulthood, transition to adulthood, and career counseling. |
Founding Members
Jose Ferreira Alves, University of Minho, Portugal >>>
Michael Commons, Harvard Medical School, USA >>>
James M. Day, University of Louvain, Belgium >>>
Eeva K. Kallio, University of Jyväskylä, Finland >>>
Sofia Kjellström, University of Linköping, Sweden >>>
Helena Marchand, University of Lisbon, Portugal >>>
Kristian Stålne, University of Malmö, Sweden >>>
Michael Commons, Harvard Medical School, USA >>>
James M. Day, University of Louvain, Belgium >>>
Eeva K. Kallio, University of Jyväskylä, Finland >>>
Sofia Kjellström, University of Linköping, Sweden >>>
Helena Marchand, University of Lisbon, Portugal >>>
Kristian Stålne, University of Malmö, Sweden >>>
ESRAD, Official Rules of the Organization
| esrad_rules_june_2017.pdf |