GREG MEISSEN, Ph.D.
Director and Professor of Psychology
greg.meissen@wichita.edu

We've heard it said that the average person may have up to seven different careers in their life. Most, however, don't try it all at the same time as Greg Meissen has done since 1986! Greg is Director of Self-Help Network and Professor of Psychology at Wichita State University.

Greg is a native Kansan having grown up in Wichita. After receiving his B.A. in psychology at Wichita State University in 1977, he earned a Ph.D. in community psychology from the University of Tennessee. He returned to Wichita State University in 1980 to the Department of Psychology where he has served in a number of leadership roles within the community psychology graduate program. In 1986, Greg brought the newly founded Self-Help Network to WSU. Greg's career highlights include:

• Publishing over 35 research articles in journals including the New England Journal of Medicine, American Journal of Community Psychology, Psychiatric Services, Social Work and the Journal of Applied Behavioral Science;
• Presenting over 200 scientific papers at national and international conferences;
• Serving his professional and Kansas community in roles including membership on the Via Christi Hospital Institutional Review Board, St. Francis Boys Home Board, Wellness Coalition and Project Awareness.
• Fulfilling national roles as co-founder and chair of the Interest Group on Self-Help Group Research of the American Psychological Association, member of the National Advisory Council of the Self-Help Mental Health Research Center and served on the Surgeon General's Council on Self-Help and Public Health.
• Had faculty appointments at the Harvard School of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital and the University of Boston Medical School.

Greg has been repeatedly honored for the quality of his teaching at Wichita State. In 1998 he received the John Barrier Regent's Distinguished Teaching Award, was the Kansas nominee for U.S. Professor of the Year to the Carnegie Foundation in 1994 and 1995, and was named Outstanding WSU Professor of the Year in 1993.

Currently Greg is involved in a number of Self-Help Network research and action projects focused on self-help groups, leadership, positive community change and the development of thriving behaviors in young people. As Director, Greg leads staff in seeking new opportunities for Self-Help Network to make a difference throughout Kansas. His commitment to empowering mental health consumers, self-helpers, and Kansans seeking positive community change is reflected in the diversity of the Network's activities and its longevity as an organization for over 17 years.

When not working as a professor or at the Network, Greg stays connected to the community and state in which he grew up and loves serving on a number of task forces, associations and coalitions. For fun and fitness he plays handball, walks and putters in the yard. He spends lots of time with his family and has great support from Jan his spouse of nearly 25 years, who has counseled families and children for years, and his children Emily and Chris who as young adults continue to inspire him to work toward making Wichita and Kansas the best place in the country to live.