Connect

Julie Exline, PhD, a national leader in researching spiritual struggles and explanations for extraordinary human experiences, has been named research director of the University of Virginia’s Division of Perceptual Studies. She will begin July 1.

Exline, who will also serve as the Bonner-Lowry Professor in the UVA School of Medicine Department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences, comes to the Division of Perceptual Studies from Case Western Reserve University, where she is a professor in the Department of Psychological Sciences. She has been a faculty member at Case Western Reserve University for 25 years and served as director of clinical training for the doctorate program in clinical psychology. Throughout her career, Exline has secured approximately $8 million in funding for her research, about half of which for projects where she served as primary investigator.

“She has become highly adept in the research arena, acquiring funding, designing, and implementing studies, using open science methods, analyzing data, leading research teams, collaborating with co-authors and disseminating findings through publishing, presenting, media outreach, teaching and clinical work,” says Anita Clayton, MD, Chair, UVA Department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences. “Importantly, Dr. Exline has achieved these goals while working in an area that has often been overlooked and underfunded within mainstream psychology.”

Exline has co-authored more than 230 publications, including more than 100 on spiritual struggles and more than 25 exploring spiritual beliefs and anomalous experiences. She has earned multiple awards from the American Psychological Association’s Society for the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, including the division’s highest award, the William James Award, which is given once every three years. She has also served as the division’s president. 

She co-edited the American Psychological Association’s “Handbook of Psychology, Religion, and Spirituality” along with working as a consulting editor for Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, the flagship journal in her field. She also serves on the editorial boards of several other journals and was invited to serve as a senior research associate at the University of Cambridge.

“Dr. Exline will bring the faculty and their work to a new level in study design and execution, funding, collaborations and publications that will benefit patients and others for whom these topics contextualize their life and expand their possibilities,” Clayton says. “She leads by example through her disciplined and rigorous approach to the scientific exploration of these important topics.”

A licensed psychologist in Ohio, Exline earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science from the University of Michigan before earning a master’s degree in psychology and a doctorate in clinical psychology from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. She then served as a visiting researcher and postdoctoral research associate in social psychology at Case Western Reserve University before joining the faculty in 2000.

"We are thrilled to have someone of Dr. Exline's caliber join our team at the University of Virginia," says Bruce Greyson, MD, Professor Emeritus and former Director of the Division of Perceptual Studies. "She is not only a world-class researcher, whose skills and areas of expertise nicely complement those of our current faculty, but she is also an experienced and talented mentor to junior faculty and research staff who will help us expand our programs into the future."

Exline is excited to join UVA Division of Perceptual Studies to expand her research into studies of the potential persistence of human consciousness. She looks forward to working with the team to find new ways to show how their research relates to fundamental human concerns and to the interface between mind and brain.

“One of my goals is to highlight the personal, clinical, spiritual and societal relevance of addressing core questions about the possibility of post-mortem existence and a transcendent consciousness,” she says. “My ultimate hope is that these topics, including the work of the Division of Perceptual Studies, will become more central to broader conversations about how to bring out the full potential of human experience.”

Exline will succeed Jim Tucker, MD, who retired in January 2025.