Professor Colleen Ward is a native of New Orleans and a citizen of the world. Colleen received her Ph.D. from the University of Durham, England, in 1977, and has since held research and/or teaching positions at the University of the West Indies, Trinidad, the Science University of Malaysia, the National University of Singapore, the University of Canterbury and most recently Victoria University of Wellington where she is former Head of Psychology and current Director of the Centre for Applied Cross-cultural Research.

Colleen is currently President of the International Academy of Intercultural Research (2009-11) and formerly President of the Asian Association of Social Psychology (2005-7) and Secretary General of the International Association for Cross-cultural Psychology (1992-4). She serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Cross-cultural Psychology, Asian Journal of Social Psychology, International Journal of Intercultural Relations, and the Advances in Culture and Psychology Series (Oxford University Press).

Colleen is author of more than 120 journal articles and book chapters. Her research speciality is in cross-cultural psychology with particular expertise in acculturation and intercultural relations. She was New Zealand's James Cook Fellow in Social Science in 2005.