Dr. Reine van der Wal obtained her PhD in 2015 at Radboud University Nijmegen, where she studied forgiveness among children. This sparked a lasting interest in how people maintain or repair valuable relationships. After moving to Utrecht University, she investigated forgiveness in the context of divorce, followed by research on dyadic coping in families with a chronically ill child, in collaboration with the Wilhelmina Children’s Hospital.
This focus on disrupted relationships and the conditions for repair and resilience now shapes her work within organizational contexts. After her work at the WKZ, she supervised a PhD project on forgiveness in work relationships. She now studies what happens when trust breaks down, what it takes to restore social safety, and how to build fair and sustainable collaboration in the long term.
At Utrecht University, she collaborates closely with HR to monitor and improve policies on social safety, and she supervises PhD research on social safety in academia and institutional trust. She is also actively involved in the development and implementation of Recognition & Rewards, aimed at creating a more inclusive and balanced academic culture.
