President- Elect
Brad Olson (he/him)
Term Dates
August 2027 to July 2027
Professional Bio
Brad Olson, Ph.D., is a community, peace, and social psychologist, activist, philosopher of science, and evaluation consultant. He is a professor in the Community Psychology Ph.D. program at National Louis University and a member of the University’s Illinois School of Professional Psychology. He teaches statistics and supervises dissertation research in both programs. Brad is a founder of the Coalition for an Ethical Psychology and a past president of Psychologists for Social Responsibility (PsySR), the Society for the Study of Peace, Conflict, and Violence (APA Division 48), and the Society for Community Research and Action (SCRA; APA Division 27). He currently serves as an American Psychological Association Council Representative and is president-elect of SCRA, where he will begin his second term as president next year.
CP and Me
Community psychology gives me an intellectual and activist home. Although I value strengths-based approaches, I consider myself a critical and Rappaportian community psychologist. I value our field’s underlying principles while recognizing that even community psychologists (and most other human beings) do not always live up to them. We can all do better. At its best, community psychology asks us to look beyond individuals to the relationships, histories, institutions, and systems that shape people’s lives across the life course. At the same time, it takes seriously people’s capacity to understand and transform those conditions: to exercise control within their communities, to be self- and collectively determining, and to help choose the conditions under which they live and the course their lives will take. My own orientation joins critical inquiry with collective action: investigating truth, challenging institutional power and injustice, and helping create the conditions for dignity, trust, and meaningful participation. Following Rappaport, I understand community psychology as a movement—one that must itself remain open to change and transformation. Our work should be part of a self-critical and evolving project committed to learning with communities and, together, making consequential change possible.