Black Men and Women Who Shaped Mental Health Part 2
Black Men and Women Who Shaped Mental Health, Part 2
Black Men and Women Who Shaped Mental Health, Part 2
In 1969, E. Kitch Childs was the Association for Women in Psychology founder. She was also a founding member of Chicago’s Gay Liberation Front. In addition to being a leader for women in psychology and the LGBTQ+ community, Childs also owned her own practice. She provided therapy to LGBTQ+ folks, people living with HIV/AIDS, and other marginalized members of her community. She practiced feminist medicine and centered her research and work around the experiences of Black women and feminist theory.
Dr. Comer is the Maurice Falk Professor of Child Psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine’s Child Study Center in New Haven, Connecticut. He is known nationally and internationally for creating the Comer School Development Program in 1968 within Yale University’s School of Medicine. Dr. Comer has focused his career on improving school restructuring and has been featured in numerous newspaper, magazine, and television reports, while also having several articles published in academic journals. He is a co-founder and past president of the Black Psychiatrists of America. Dr. Comer is the recipient of countless recognitions and holds over forty-eight honorary degrees. In 2014, Dr. Comer received a prestigious nomination by President Barrack Obama to serve on the President’s Commission on Educational Excellence for African Americans.
Dr. Myers is known for her critique of traditional western psychological frameworks and her research on African-centered psychology. She specializes in psychology and culture, moral and spiritual identity development, healing practices and psychotherapeutic processes, and race, gender, and class intersections. Internationally known for her work developing a theory of Optimal Psychology, Dr. Myers has conducted training in England, South Africa, Ghana, and Jamaica. She is the author of numerous articles, book chapters, and five books, including Understanding an Afrocentric World View: Introduction to an Optimal Psychology.
Most recently, she is co-editor of Re-centering Culture and Knowledge in Conflict Resolution Practice. Dr. James Myers’ Oneness model of human functioning offers a trans-disciplinary focus that builds on insights from the wisdom tradition of deep African thought and converges with modern physics and Eastern philosophies. Her current research interests comprise applying that model to a broad range of issues from health and education to business ethics. Dr. James Myers has received numerous honors and awards for excellence in research and scholarship, including being named Distinguished Psychologist by the Association of Black Psychologists (of which she is also a past president); the Bethune/Woodson Award for Outstanding Contributions in the Development of Promotion of Black Studies from the National Council of Black Studies; Oni Award by the International Black Women’s Congress; and, the Building to Eternity Award from the Association for the Study of Classical African Civilization, among others.
Edmund W. Gordon is the John M. Musser Professor of Psychology, Emeritus at Yale University, Richard March Hoe Professor, Emeritus of Psychology and Education at Teachers College, Columbia University, and Director Emeritus of the Institute for Urban and Minority Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. He is also the Senior Scholar in Residence at the SUNY Rockland Community College. Distinguished by a career spanning more than six decades in professional practice, academic life as a minister, and work as a clinical and counseling psychologist, Dr. Gordon has authored more than 200 articles and eighteen books. He has also been elected a Fellow of various prestigious associations, including the American Psychological Association and American Association for the Advancement of Science, and was further recognized by the National Academy of Education and Educational Testing Service for his contributions to developments in education such as Head Start, compensatory education, and supplementary education.
The Trinidadian-American scholar Oliver Cox was an economist and sociologist who studied at Northwestern University and the University of Chicago before holding professorships of his own at Wiley College, Lincoln University, and the Tuskegee Institute. No stranger to adversity, Cox’s work sparked a great deal of controversy during his life–he was branded as a “Marxist” for his work on global economics and frequently dismissed by the predominantly White and racist economic institution.
Nevertheless, his development of the world-systems sociology theory ended up being embraced by mainstream scholars decades after he began publishing it. His determination can also be seen by his fight against polio in his late 20s, which forced him to walk with crutches for the rest of his life, which could not stop him from the crucial work he did in his field.