FDU Appoints Benjamin Freer Dean of the Marion Turpan College of Psychology and Counseling
Benjamin Freer, PhD, Dean of the Marion Turpan College of Psychology and Counseling
February 10, 2026 — After concluding a national search, Fairleigh Dickinson University has announced the appointment of Benjamin Freer as dean of the Marion Turpan College of Psychology and Counseling, effective immediately. Freer, a professor of psychology, was previously serving as interim dean of the college.
“Ben Freer has proven himself an inspirational and dynamic leader and we are excited about his vision for the future for the college,” said University Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Benjamin Rifkin.
“I am honored to be appointed as the inaugural dean of the Marion Turpan College of Psychology and Counseling and I am excited to continue this work to serve the FDU community,” Freer said. “I look forward to collaborating with students, staff, faculty, and the entire FDU community to advance innovative, student-centered programs that integrate academic excellence with the mission of FDU and the FDU Health initiatives.”
Freer joined the FDU faculty as an assistant professor in 2011, was promoted with tenure to the rank of associate professor in 2018 and promoted to the rank of professor in 2024. He served as the director of the School of Psychology and Counseling when it was established in 2020 and as the interim dean of the College of Psychology and Counseling when it was established in 2025.
Freer is also the co-founder of FDU’s Empathy Center for Research and Training and has taken a leading role in promoting projects at the University related to empathy and character. His leadership accomplishments at FDU also include collaboration with external partners on empathy training as a revenue-generating project for FDU, the establishment of an external advisory board for the Marion Turpan College of Psychology and Counseling, the creation — with external funding he helped solicit — of the University’s Transforming College Campuses program, leading the college (then the school) through the successful accreditation processes — including most recently the School Psychology accreditation and the Forensic Psychology accreditation — and close collaboration with the Becton College of Nursing and Allied Health and the College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences to increase the University’s engagement in the community and the larger community’s engagement with FDU through FDU Health and the FDU HealthPath Forward initiative.
Freer added that a central part of his work will focus heavily “on character development, empathetic and ethical leadership, and interdisciplinary collaboration that prepares students to meet complex professional, personal, and societal challenges. Together, we will strengthen the college’s impact in our community and accelerate the professional trajectory of our students.”
An active scholar in his field, Freer has been a co-principal investigator on numerous externally funded projects and is the author or co-author of many publications in refereed journals on topics such as child abuse prevention, adaptive behavior of college students with autism and strategies to foster the success of students who are veterans, among many others. He has also presented widely at psychology conferences and broader contexts, such as the annual meeting of the American Association of Colleges and Universities, and for corporate and nonprofit organization groups, especially on topics including empathy and relational leadership in the workplace and on the college campus, and character and global citizenship. He is an active participant in the mentoring of graduate students in the doctoral program and has chaired and co-chaired numerous dissertation projects.
Freer earned his bachelor’s degree in psychology at Valparaiso University in Indiana and his master’s and doctoral degrees in experimental psychology at the University of Kentucky, where he also earned a graduate certificate in college teaching and learning.