Biography

Charles Ray Figley was born in Chicago, grew up in Ohio, and joined the Marine Corps out of high school. His life has been about collaboration, cooperation, and innovation. This web page is about what he helped to accomplish during his career and life.

Dr. Figley is the Tulane University Paul Henry Kurzweg, MD Distinguished Chair in Disaster Mental Health and Associate Dean for Research, School of Social Work Professor, and Director of the award-winning Traumatology Institute. Since his arrival at Tulane he has served as co-founder of two graduate programs at Tulane connected with the School of Social Work: He served as Founding Program Director of the Master of Science (MS) degree in Disaster Resilience Leadership Program and Founding Program Director of the City, Culture, and Community PhD Program. 

He is a former professor at both Purdue University (1974-1989) and Florida State University (1989-2008) and former Fulbright Fellow and Visiting Distinguished Professor at the Kuwait University (2003-2004). He has published more 160 refereed journal articles and 25 books as pioneer trauma scholar and practitioner. He is founding editor of the Journal of Traumatic Stress, the Journal of Family Psychotherapy, and the international journal, Traumatology. He is also Founding Editor of the Book Series Death and Trauma (Taylor & Francis), Innovations in Psychology (CRC Press), and continues to as Editor of the Psychosocial Stress Book Series (Routledge). In 2014 Dr. Figley received the John Jay College of Criminal Justice honorary degree of doctor of letters, honoris causa.

Charles Figley has many passions for which he devotes both his personal and professional time. Among other passions is social justice with special focus on those overlooked. See his civic duty activities. This passion emerged in high school, continued during his service in the US Marine Corps, especially his war service in Vietnam where he worked with his high school in Springboro, Ohio to collect and ship several tons of school and hygiene supplies to his Marine unit in Da Nang for distribution to the children at the Catholic orphanage and school. After graduation he spent considerable time as a volunteer and as a scholar to help war veterans cope with their mental health, disaster survivors, secondary trauma survivors, and others who experienced traumatic stress injuries. He continues his humanitarian efforts today, focusing inequities in the treatment of Native Americans, torture trauma survivors, and the elimination of on trauma stigma.

Professor Figley received both graduate degrees from the Pennsylvania State University and his undergraduate degree from the University of Hawaii, all in the interdisciplinary field of human development. He and his wife, Dr. Kathleen Regan Figley, are devoted to their four grandchildren while remaining engaged in their research and important social causes.

Continue reading about Charles Figley’s Career Accomplishments

Read more about Charles Figley on Wikipedia

See Dr. Figley’s Expert Page at Tulane University