James E. Kennedy began his professional career working at J.B. Rhine’s Institute for Parapsychology in Durham, North Carolina, USA, from 1974 to 1979. He obtained a M.S.P.H. (Public Health) from the University of North Carolina in 1982, focusing on environmental science and biostatistics. He did environmental work in the 1980s, shifted to academic medical research for a few years, and then data analysis and data management for FDA-regulated clinical trials for 16 years with four different organizations and increasing management responsibilities. Throughout this period he contributed to parapsychology in his free time with his perspectives and writings influenced by many personal paranormal experiences in his early 20s and by diverse professional experiences. After retiring in 2011, he began promoting the much better research methodology used in regulated clinical trials than in parapsychology and academic psychology. This coincided with the emerging replication crisis in psychology that was forcing psychologists to improve research methodology. With Caroline Watt, he established the Koestler Parapsychology Unit (KPU) Study Registry in 2012, and became an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Edinburgh in April, 2023.