MitgliedFrank C. Worrell

Frank C. Worrell earned his bachelor‘s and master’s degrees in psychology at the University of Western Ontario (Canada) and did his doctorate in school and educational psychology at the University of California in Berkeley. As professor at the School of Education, he currently directs the “School Psychology Program” and the “Academic Talent Development Program”. Prof. Worrell engages in research cooperation in Ethiopia, China, Germany, Iran, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Nigeria, Peru, Poland, Slovenia, Türkiye, the UK and Uruguay. His papers – comprising over 300 publications – are acknowledged internationally. Besides research on gifted education and at-risk youth, he also explores the significance of cultural identities for individual development. A further emphasis in his work is on scale development and validation for sociological studies. In various projects, he also promotes the transfer of research findings into everyday school life and practice.

From 2002 onwards, in a multi-year project to introduce school psychology in his native country of Trinidad and Tobago, Prof. Worrell directed the founding of a support department for school students on behalf of the ministry of education. In 2005 he assisted in founding the Aspire Richmond California College Preparatory Academy in the United States, in which he has remained active until today. In cooperation between universities and secondary schools, the academy fosters mainly young people from minority groups to enable them to access university education. In 2018 he was elected to the National Academy of Education of the USA. In 2022 Prof. Worell was President of the American Psychological Association (APA).

He has been a member of Heidelberg University’s Academic Advisory Council since 2024.