Laura Dryjanska is Associate Professor at Rosemead School of Psychology of Biola University in Southern California. She obtained a PhD in social psychology (European PhD in Social Representations and Communication) in 2012 from the Sapienza University of Rome, and subsequently gained experience in industrial-organizational psychology.
Dr. Dryjanska is a Polish and Italian citizen, fluent in five languages. She has lived and worked in Poland, Ecuador, Italy, and the United States. She is a fellow of the American Psychological Association. Dr. Dryjanska’s research interests focus on vulnerable populations and include migration, human trafficking, and intergenerational solidarity.
Dr. Dryjanska endorses the vision of a citizen psychologist, well-rounded professional who applies the discipline to social issues, mindful of the public interests. She has done some research on the topic of advocacy and ethical responsibility of scientists, comparing different cultural perspectives. Teaching in an APA-accredited doctoral program in clinical psychology, she promotes the scientist-practitioner-advocate training model. Since the beginning of her career in academia as a social psychologist and an industrial-organizational psychologist, she has worked closely with clinicians. Her own advocacy efforts concentrate on the topics of human trafficking (as an International Ambassador of the Rotarian Action Group Against Slavery and a member of the Orange Country Human Trafficking Task Force) and aging (as an Ambassador of the Alzheimer’s Impact Movement of the Alzheimer’s Association), also in relation to the context of workplace. In Europe, she is a management committee member of the EU-funded COST (Cooperation in Science and Technology) Action dedicated to Transnational Family Dynamics, and she collaborates on research with the Italian Diplomatic Institute.