Teaching the Psychology of Black Womanhood
Friday, October 2nd
1:30 PM - 2:30 PM EST
Danielle Dickens, Ph.D.
Dr. Danielle Dickens is a Professor of Psychology at Spelman College and a Black feminist social psychologist whose research examines the identity development and identity shifting strategies of Black women across workplace, higher education, and STEM contexts. A Spelman alumna, she earned her M.S. and Ph.D. in Applied Social and Health Psychology from Colorado State University. She is the co-author of Psychology of Black Womanhood, the field's first comprehensive textbook on the psychological experiences of Black girls and women, and directs the GRACE (Gender, Race, and Cultural Empowerment) Lab, where she has helped secure more than $11 million in research funding. Dr. Dickens recently served as President of the Spelman College Faculty Council (2024–2026) and currently serves as an Associate Editor for Psychology of Women Quarterly and an Editorial Consultant for the Journal of Black Psychology. Her scholarship, leadership, and mentorship have been recognized with numerous honors, including the 2020 APA Psychology of Black Women Foremothers Mentorship Early Career Award. As a dedicated educator and mentor, she is committed to preparing the next generation of scholars and leaders to advance equity and social change.
Dionne Stephens, Ph.D.
Dr. Dionne Stephens, PhD, is a full Professor of Psychology at Florida International University (FIU) and an internationally recognized scholar whose work examines how culture, gender, ethnicity, and social context shape health, sexuality, and identity development. Originally from Toronto, Canada, she earned her PhD in Human Development from the University of Georgia, and an MA in Women’s Studies from SUNY Buffalo.
Dr. Stephens’ interdisciplinary research focuses on marginalized populations and addresses sexual health, gender-based violence, HIV/STI prevention, media and cultural influences, health disparities, and culturally responsive public health interventions. Her active research collaborations span the United States, Canada, India, and Colombia, integrating psychological science with community-engaged and culturally grounded approaches. She is also a leading scholar in the emerging field of the Psychology of Black Womanhood and co-author of The Psychology of Black Womanhood, a multidisciplinary and intersectional academic text examining the sociohistorical and psychological experiences of Black women. Through her teaching, research, mentoring, and public scholarship, she bridges academic research with community knowledge and lived experience, translating psychological science into meaningful real-world applications.
Dr. Stephens has received recognitions for her work and community engagement from several organizations, including the APA Division 35 Foremothers’ Excellence in Mentorship Award, the APA Mid-Career Award for Multicultural Psychology, and an NIH Fogarty Global Health Equity Faculty Fellowship. Her work is grounded in a commitment to rigorous, culturally responsive scholarship that reaches beyond the academy—bringing research into conversation with communities and using psychology to better understand and address real-world health and social issues.
Pamela Trotman Reid, Ph.D.
Pamela Trotman Reid, Ph.D., Senior Scholar for the Merrill Palmer Skillman Institute for Child and Family Development at Wayne State University, is also President Emerita of University of Saint Joseph (USJ) in Connecticut where she served as president for nearly eight years. She has a broad and successful background in higher education with more than thirty years of progressively responsible management assignments, experience as a professor and researcher, in addition to community service, and engagement in organizations devoted to the advancement of psychology, women and girls.
Dr. Reid has served at a variety of public and private institutions progressing from assistant to full professor. She held faculty positions in psychology, education, and women’s studies at the University of Michigan, City University of New York's Graduate School, Howard University, among others. Her administrative positions included department chairperson at UT Chattanooga, associate provost at CUNY, executive vice president and provost at Roosevelt University, and president at the University of Saint Joseph.
After assuming the presidency in January 2008, Dr. Reid built upon the College of Saint Joseph’s academic excellence and its commitment to integrity, women’s leadership, and service, graduatlly establishing its university status. Her 8 years of administrative successes included record setting fundraising efforts and enhanced statewide recognition in media and government venues. She initiated and successfully launched the University’s first professional doctoral program by creating a School of Pharmacy, Connecticut’s first private school of pharmacy. A doctoral program in Nursing Practice and the Master of Social Work were begun under her leadership, as well as undergraduate programs in Public Health, Public Policy and Advocacy.
Dr. Reid’s commitment to the community earned numerous honors, including being named Northeastern Economic Development Association’s Higher Education Person of the Year. Her service on multiple civic and cultural boards in the Greater Hartford area included an appointment by CT Governor Malloy to the Capital Region Development Authority, and chairmanship of the executive committees of the Connecticut Conference of Independent Colleges and the Hartford Consortium for Higher Education. At the national level she served on the board of National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU), the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) Presidents Council for Division III. She most recently served on the American Psychological Association’s Publications and Communications Board and is actively engaged in the Michigan chapter of the International Women’s Forum (IWF).
A developmental psychologist, Pam Reid is nationally-known as a scholar in the area of gender and racial socialization. A Fellow of the American Psychological Association (APA), a past President of the APA Society for the Psychology of Women. Named among the 100 Distinguished Women in Psychology, she has received national awards for leadership, scholarship, and publications. Dr. Reid holds a B.S. from Howard University, an M.A. from Temple University, and a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. She is married to Dr. Irvin D. Reid, Distinguished Professor and President Emeritus of Wayne State University in Detroit.
They have two adult children and three grandchildren.
Veronica G. Thomas, Ph.D.
Veronica G. Thomas, Ph.D., is a Professor in the Department of Human Development and Psychoeducational Studies at Howard University. She also serves as Director of Evaluation and Continuous Improvement for the Georgetown-Howard Universities Center for Clinical and Translational Sciences (GHUCCTS). Dr. Thomas’s research interests include positive aging in adulthood and later life, culturally responsive evaluation, and the physical and psychological well-being of Black families, with particular emphasis on women and girls. Her work has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Education, and the Women’s College Coalition, among others. She is co-author of two graduate textbooks: the award-winning Evaluation in Today’s World: Respecting Diversity, Improving Quality, and Promoting Usability (SAGE, 2021) and Health Program Evaluation: Using a Culturally Responsive, Racialized, and Equity Perspective (SAGE, 2027). She is also the author or co-author of numerous journal articles, book chapters, and other scholarly and public-facing works.
