Dr. Preston Lindsay

Dr. Preston Lindsay is an organizational psychologist whose scholarship and practice explore the systemic impacts of organizational trauma. His research investigates how organizational trauma manifests, not merely as isolated incidents, but as deeply embedded patterns of dysfunction, dysregulation, and disconnection across the system. These traumatic dynamics often emerge from destructive leadership, chronic stress, systemic oppression, and unprocessed collective harm, leading to cascading effects that undermine psychological safety, strategic coherence, and human dignity within the workplace.

Drawing from systems thinking, Black feminist thought, social constructionism, and cognitive organizational neuroscience, Dr. Lindsay’s work seeks to illuminate how organizational trauma shapes both culture and consciousness. He is particularly interested in how these manifestations affect the cognitive, emotional, and relational functioning of workers, and how organizations can design human-centered interventions that foster repair, resilience, and transformation at every level of organizational life.

Dr. Lindsay serves as Assistant Professor of Professional Practice at Rutgers University’s Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology (GSAPP), where he mentors doctoral students in applied organizational psychology and teaches foundational and advanced courses in applied systems theory and analysis, organizational diagnosis, organization development and change. He also holds appointments as Clinical Professor of Psychology at the University of Mount Saint Vincent, Seton College, and as a Lecturer in the Organization Dynamics Programs at the University of Pennsylvania. His pedagogy is known for its innovation, blending gamification, case-based simulations, and critical discourse to bring organizational theory to life in real-world contexts.

He is the Founder and Director of the Organizational Trauma Intervention Studies Lab (OTIS Lab) at GSAPP, a research lab dedicated to advancing theory and evidence-based practice in the diagnosis and intervention of organizational trauma. The lab aims to partners with institutions across sectors to develop and evaluate systemic interventions that help organizations confront systemic failure, institutional harms, navigate complexity, and reimagine their futures.

Outside academia, Dr. Lindsay is the Founder and President of The Lindsay Group Co., a consulting firm that supports organizations in addressing systemic dysfunction and cultivating high performing, human-centered workplace ecosystems.

He is a former Vice Chair of the Organization Development Network, and currently serves on the Editorial Board of the Organization Development Review. Across all of his roles, Dr. Lindsay is committed to preparing the next generation of applied psychologists and organizational leaders to disrupt cycles of harm, design for equity, and lead change that is both transformational and liberatory.