Roger Branche, Ph.D., is an alumnus of the Ph.D. International Psychology program at The Chicago School. He was born and raised in the twin-island Republic of Trinidad and Tobago.
I began the Ph.D. International Psychology program at The Chicago School in 2013 and graduated in 2018. The program prepared me to work with international populations living in the U.S., assisting their process of immigration and acculturation. Currently, I am an asylum officer in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in Washington, D.C.
International psychologists are competent to engage in international advocacy, consulting, research, and teaching and training. They have the capacity to partner with individuals, groups, communities, and countries worldwide to collaboratively address unmet needs and injustices. They also advance the common good and well-being in trauma studies (e.g., designing and evaluating policy and programs concerned with humanitarian aid and human rights) and organization and systems (e.g., working at the senior leadership level to improve performance and efficiency within organizations operating internationally).
Given that these areas are multiply determined and mutisectoral in scope, international psychologists must be prepared to work with experts from various disciplines, including business, law, medicine, and public health. They must be able to work in public and private sectors, for profit and nonprofit entities, and at policymaking and grassroots levels.
I have traveled to numerous countries and interacted with people from various cultures with some unique indigenous rituals. I had a hand in initiating the use of polygraph screening in the Caribbean law enforcement community over the last 20 years, and I have also worked extensively as an independent contractor with the National Crime Agency in the U.K., conducting polygraph exams and integrity assessment of law enforcement personnel in several countries in Western and Northern Africa.
I believe firmly that learning is a continuous experiential process where one can find wisdom in any interaction and often in the most unexpected places.