Expired Black History Month Event | Black Women in Leadership: Pleasures and Perils

Program Description:

This panel discussion moderated by Ackerman Board Member and Clinical Psychologist, Dr. Beverly Greene, will explore themes around Black women in leadership. We will be joined by a panel of accomplished Black women leaders who will draw on their personal and professional experiences to discuss topics of race, gender, and power.

Moderator:

Dr. Beverly Greene, PhD is a Board Certified Clinical Psychologist and Professor of Psychology at St. John’s University. She is a fellow of the American Psychological Association and the Academy of Clinical Psychology, and is the author of over 100 publications in the psychological literature of which 12 are the recipients of national awards for their distinguished contributions to that literature. She is the recipient of 40 national awards, and two APA Presidential Citations for distinguished contributions to feminist psychology, the psychological study of the intersectionality of race, gender and sexual orientation, the illumination of the lives of people often invisible to psychology and creating a body of scholarship and practice that leads to social justice increasing psychology’s multicultural competencies. She is featured on the Mental Health America web list of Black Pioneers in Mental Health.

Panelists:

Thema S. Bryant, PhD is president of the American Psychological Association (APA) and a tenured professor of psychology in the Graduate School of Education and Psychology at Pepperdine University, where she directs the Culture and Trauma Research Laboratory. Her clinical and research interests center on interpersonal trauma and the societal trauma of oppression. She has raised public awareness regarding mental health by extending the reach of psychology beyond the academy and private therapy office through community programming, organizational consultation, popular books, and media engagement. Bryant is a past president of the Society for the Psychology of Women and a past APA representative to the United Nations. She is host of the Homecoming Podcast and author of the recent books Homecoming and the Antiracism Handbook.

Jennifer F. Kelly, PhD is the 2021 Past President of the American Psychological Association. She is Board Certified in Clinical Health Psychology and is the director of the Atlanta Center for Behavioral Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia. Her primary presidential initiative focused on psychology’s role in achieving health equity. In 2018, Kelly served as Co-Chair of the newly formed Advocacy Coordinating Committee of the APA Services, Inc. A past president of the Georgia Psychological Association, Kelly has served as the Federal Advocacy Coordinator of the Association for 23 years. A graduate of the 2003 class of Leadership Atlanta, Kelly has been recognized on numerous occasions for her advocacy on behalf of psychology, including recognition by the APA Services, Inc. Practice Leadership Conference, for her leadership in advancing the profession of psychology through Federal Advocacy, and Legislative Award of the Georgia Psychological Association.

Olivia Moorehead-Slaughter, PhD is a child clinical licensed Psychologist with 33 years of experience working with children, adolescents, families and adults across a range of settings including outpatient mental health clinics, schools, child care centers, juvenile and probate courts, community health centers, and social service agencies. For 24 years, Moorehead-Slaughter has been the Psychologist at The Park School (a pre-k through 8th independent school) in Brookline, Massachusetts where she is known as “Dr. O.” Since 2004, she has been a faculty member of the Center for Multicultural Training in Psychology (CMTP), an APA accredited predoctoral internship program at Boston University School of Medicine and Boston Medical Center. Moorehead-Slaughter is the former Chair of the Massachusetts Board of Licensure for Psychologists and the APA Ethics Committee. She is Past President of APA’s Division 35 (The Society for the Psychology of Women) and in 2014, received the Division 35 Bonnie A. Strickland and Jessica Henderson Daniel Distinguished Mentoring Award. In 2019, she was the recipient of APA’s Division 35 Foremothers Mentorship Career Excellence Award. Moorehead-Slaughter is the former Chair of the APA Board for the Advancement of Psychology in the Public Interest (BAPPI) and a former member of the APA Board of Educational Affairs (BEA). She has a private consulting practice which includes working with faculty and administrators in independent schools throughout the country on issues related to diversity, equity, and inclusion; clinical consultation, presentations, workshops, and retreats. Since 2004, Moorehead-Slaughter has served on the faculty of the Diversity Directions Independent School Seminar (held each summer at Brooks School in North Andover) and also consults to independent schools with Diversity Directions throughout the year. She has served as a board member of the Association of Independent Schools in New England (AISNE). She identifies as a cisgendered, African-American/Black female, feminist, heterosexual, married, mother of 2 adult sons. Her pronouns are she/her/hers.

Alicia Parker retired from the New York City Police Department in 1995 after 22 years of service. She was the 4th African American woman to be promoted to the rank of lieutenant in the NYPD. She commanded the Personal Security Unit at the NYPD Intelligence Division where she worked with Mayor David Dinkins while he was mayor of NYC. After her retirement, she became a Director of Security for the National Basketball Association. In 2002 she left the NBA and was hired as the first Senior Director of Security for ESPN. She is the 1st Vice President of the New York City Police Council of Retired Guardians. Parker attended New York University and graduated in 1972 with a BA in Psychology. She has two children, five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Beverly Daniel Tatum, PhD is interim president of Mount Holyoke College and a clinical psychologist widely known for both her expertise on race relations and as a thought leader in higher education. Her thirteen years as the president of Spelman College (2002-2015) were marked by innovation and growth and her visionary leadership was recognized in 2013 with the Carnegie Academic Leadership Award. The author of the best-selling “Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?” and Other Conversations About Race (now in the 2017 20th anniversary edition) and Can We Talk About Race? and Other Conversations in an Era of School Resegregation (2007), Tatum is a sought-after speaker on the topics of racial identity development, race and education, strategies for creating inclusive campus environments, and higher education leadership. A Fellow of the American Psychological Association, she was the 2014 recipient of the APA Award for Outstanding Lifetime Contributions to Psychology.

She holds a BA degree in psychology from Wesleyan University, and an MA and PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Michigan as well as an MA in Religious Studies from Hartford Seminary. She has served as a faculty member at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Westfield State University, and Mount Holyoke College. Prior to her 2002 appointment as president of Spelman, she served as dean and acting president at Mount Holyoke College. In Spring 2017 she was the Mimi and Peter E. Haas Distinguished Visitor at Stanford University.

Seanna Kaye Denham-Wilkes, PhD is a Clinical Psychologist and the Chief Experience Officer at NYC Health and Hospitals/Kings County Hospital, a level 1 Trauma center and Safety Net Hospital with the 14th busiest emergency department in the United States. An executive leader, she directs the patient-experience strategy and oversees workforce engagement activities around Joy in Work and Person Centered Care. Educated at New York University and St. John’s University, Denham-Wilkes maintains multifaceted responsibilities that include roles as a researcher, adjunct professor, corporate wellness coach and inspirational speaker. She also has a passion for mentoring and for her work as a community advocate to end the stigma associated with mental health treatment. She is the mother of a young son.

Linda Knox, recently retired from Purdue University Northwest (PNW) as executive director of the Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI), is a Human Resources professional residing in Chicago, Illinois. Linda has over thirty years of experience in Human Resources focusing in the field of diversity, inclusion, equity and belonging. As director of EDI she handled complaints and investigations of discrimination and harassment for faculty, students and staff. In addition, Knox directed and led training regarding fair employment practices, diversity, inclusion and belonging topics. Prior to her employment with Purdue University Northwest, Linda held positions in the for-profit arena. She was the Human Resources, Learning and Development Manager on the Leadership Team at the BP Whiting Refinery. Knox was instrumental in the creation and erection of the first refinery off-site training center for refinery employees. Her roles at BP included Learning and Development Manager, Strategic Implementation Lead and Senior Human Resources Representative.

Christina Pasley-Bailey, MA is a Director of Administration for the School of Arts and Sciences (SAS), Dean’s Office, and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Administrative Representative for the School of Arts and Science at Rutgers University. Pasley-Bailey is deeply dedicated to shedding light on the equity and inclusion issues that staff and administrators face in higher education settings. Pasley-Bailey is a strong and empathic leader who thinks about and works hard to advocate for the well-being of her professional community. Her work, including her leadership in several DEI-related initiatives within SAS has made an immediate and lasting impact on the culture of SAS. As a founding leader of the SAS DEI Community Engagement group, she has created new spaces for staff to gain professional development, mentoring, and resources on DEI-related topics. Pasley-Bailey also devotes time to serving as a mentor for the professionals in the tri-state area. She is currently at work on a text, Intentional Parenting: Raising Woke Black Children in Turbulent Times.

Wendi Williams, PhD is a psychologist, advocate, and educator. Williams applies her work at the intersection of education and psychology to her scholarship and leadership praxis. Williams completed undergraduate studies at the University of California, Davis where she majored in Psychology and minored in African and African American Studies. She completed graduate study at Pepperdine University (MA in Psychology) and Georgia State University, where she earned a doctorate in Counseling Psychology.

A career spanning two decades, Williams’ work delves into the contours of Black women’s and girls’ inner lives, leveraging deep knowledge of their interiority as source content for the development of culturally-responsive educational and psychological interventions. Applying critical lenses of liberation psychology; Womanist, Black, and Intersectional feminist theoretical frames with an equity-centered systems power analysis, Williams develops and implements educational, wellness, and leadership intervention programming with individuals, groups, and organizations. Her work attends to the individual and organizational transformation required to foment the optimal growth and development of diverse women and girls, while attending to systems-level change at the organizational and societal levels.

Williams has made significant scholarly contributions in the field through authored and edited works as well as conference presentations of her research and analysis, and professional development curriculum and workshops.

Williams leverages her background and platform to lead organizations that support the optimal development of vulnerable communities, especially societal challenges that can be enriched by diverse women’s unique perspectives and approaches to leadership. Some examples include serving as Co-Chair of the Board of Girls Leadership, an organization that teaches girls to exercise the power of their voice through programs grounded in social-emotional learning; and serving multiple roles including the president, of the Society for the Psychology of Women (SPW), Division 35 of the American Psychological Association (APA). She is currently their representative on the APA Council of Representatives.

Frances K. Trotman, PhD, born and raised in poverty in NYC, became one of the first women of color to earn a MPhil and a PhD in Counseling Psychology from Columbia University and an MS in Ed. in Guidance and Counseling from CCNY. Trotman has gone on to become a ‘first’ in many areas. Trotman was the first 1) woman or color licensed as a psychologist in NJ; 2) Woman of Color Guidance Counselor in a NJ School system; 3) Woman President of an Association of Licensed Psychologists; 4) woman on many influential executive boards of directors; 5) woman elected to serve as the President of the NJ Association of Black Psychologists; 6) woman of color psychologist to be recognized as an expert witness in mental health/psychology and extensively hired by prosecutors and attorneys in NJ; 7) woman of color founder/Director of a large, multi-building private psychotherapy institute in NJ; 8) woman of color to be awarded tenure, and 9) to be promoted to rank of full professor at her university; 10) faculty member at her university to be elected to Fellow Status by the APA for her outstanding and unusual contributions to the Psychology of Women; and 11) for her outstanding and unusual contributions to the Psychology of Ethnic and Minority Issues; also, 12) under her Chair and directorship, the university’s MS in Mental Health became the first accredited Mental Health Program in NJ.

Trotman received her second master’s degree and a PhD in Counseling Psychology from Columbia University while working as a Guidance Counselor in Northern NJ. As a licensed, practicing psychologist, teacher, and supervisor of practitioners, much of her scholarship and legacy to psychology is to the broadening of the definitions of mental health. By being one of the pioneering independent practitioners to expand the concept of the psychotherapy client to include various classes, races, cultures, and sexual preferences, her publications and presentations have helped to change our views about what is healthy or pathological. Now a semi-retired psychologist, licensed in the state of Florida, Trotman enjoys her adult children and her young adult grandchildren who are all wonderful, kind, empathic people who have contributed and will continue to contribute to the well-being of others. Trotman has not been recently incarcerated for social justice; however, she continues to pursue her opposition to injustice through the courts, volunteer work, serving on influential boards of directors, presentations, and publications.

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