2026 Invited Speaker: Apryl Alexander, PsyD

Presenting: No Easy Answers: Justice and Freedom in Today’s World

Experiences of injustice often provoke existential questioning, disrupting one’s sense of meaning, agency, and sense of belonging. Justice is not only a sociopolitical concern but an existential one: a reflection of our capacity to choose, to respond, and to relate ethically to others. Existential psychology offers a framework for understanding how individuals confront injustice as meaning-makers navigating ambiguity, responsibility, and choice. Dr. Alexander will explore justice through an existential lens, examining traditional models (distributive, procedural, interactional) alongside broader, social justice-oriented paradigms (restorative, transformative, transitional). Her keynote will explore how cultural, historical, and economic forces shape the conditions under which justice and freedom are experienced, and how existential therapists can support clients in confronting guilt, complicity, and moral distress without succumbing to despair or simplifying complexity. Attendees will explore justice as an ethical encounter or an invitation to respond authentically. The keynote will call on existential psychologists to engage with justice not as a fixed ideal centered on punishment, but as a relational and cultural imperative.

Dr. Apryl Alexander is the Metrolina Distinguished Professor of Health and Policy in the Department of Health Management and Policy at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She is also the Executive Director of the UNC Charlotte Violence Prevention Center. She received her doctorate in clinical psychology from the Florida Institute of Technology with concentrations in forensic psychology and child and family therapy. Dr. Alexander’s research and clinical work focus on violence and victimization, human sexuality, and trauma-informed and culturally informed practice. She is an award-winning researcher whose work has been published in several leading journals. She is the recipient of the 2022 Social Justice in Psychology Award from the Rocky Mountain Humanistic Counseling and Psychological Association and the 2024 Karl F. Heiser Presidential Award for Advocacy from the American Psychological Association. Dr. Alexander is an engaged public scholar who has been featured in numerous media outlets, including The Associated Press, Essence Magazine, USA Today, and NBC Nightly News, discussing her research and advocacy work. Dr. Alexander also enjoys bringing psychology to the public through popular media and has previously contributed to Black Panther Psychology: Hidden Kingdoms and The Handmaid’s Tale Psychology: Seeing Off Red.