Dr. Folen arrived in the Hawaiian Islands at the age of 21, ostensibly to attend graduate school at the University of Hawaii but primarily to surf. A few days in the big waves on the North Shore left him with the profound understanding that his life would be better served if he focused instead on his studies. As a student with a keen interest in the emerging field of cross-cultural psychology, he was the recipient of a four-year East-West Center scholarship that afforded him the opportunity to live and work with fellow graduate students from over 50 countries and territories in Asia and the Pacific. After graduation, he served for 4 years as a state psychologist and then began what turned out to be a 32-year stint at Tripler Army Medical Center, first as the Chief of the Behavioral Medicine Service and then as Chief of the Army’s largest Department of Psychology with a highly unusual staff of 150 personnel that included psychologists, nurses, pain anesthesiologists, acupuncturists, massage therapists, chiropractors, oral-facial pain dentists and family medicine physicians. The program offered an APA-approved internship and APA-approved fellowships in health psychology, child psychology and neuropsychology, available to both military and civilian trainees. Dr. Folen also developed and implemented a number of original behavioral health projects and was able to secure over $16M in special project funds. He was one of the early DoD psychologists to prescribe medications, prescribing several thousand medication orders without a single adverse incident.

Dr. Folen served as President and Chair of the National Register of Health Service Psychologists from 2013-2018. Following his retirement from the Department of Defense in 2016, he was selected to be the Executive Director for HPA, a position he has held since that time. Dr. Folen currently serves as Chair of the Council of Executives of State and Provincial Psychological Associations.

Dr. Folen is the author or co-author of over 65 peer-reviewed professional publications in national and international journals and he has presented more than 140 peer-reviewed papers at state, national and international conferences. He has taught over 20 different courses at the graduate level. Dr. Folen is the recipient of numerous awards to include the HPA Lifetime Achievement Award, the U.S. Army Meritorious Civilian Service Award and the Excellence in Federal Government Award for Federal Supervisor/Manager of the Year. Dr. Folen is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and was designated a ‘Distinguished Practitioner’ by the National Academies of Practice.