Bonnie Ruth Strickland (born November 24, 1936) is an American psychologist and academic. From her decades long career at

Emory University Emory University is a private university, private research university in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It was founded in 1836 as Emory College by the Methodist Episcopal Church and named in honor of Methodist bishop John Emory. Its main campu ...

and

University of Massachusetts Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst) is a public land-grant research university in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Massachusetts system and was founded in 1863 as the ...

to her time as the president of the

American Psychological Association The American Psychological Association (APA) is the main professional organization of psychologists in the United States, and the largest psychological association in the world. It has over 170,000 members, including scientists, educators, clin ...

(APA) she has contributed a great deal to

clinical psychology Clinical psychology is an integration of human science, behavioral science, theory, and clinical knowledge for the purpose of understanding, preventing, and relieving psychologically-based distress or dysfunction and to promote subjective well ...

social psychology Social psychology is the methodical study of how thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others. Although studying many of the same substantive topics as its counterpart in the field ...

, and

feminism Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

. Strickland was born in 1936 in

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville is the List of cities in Kentucky, most populous city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, sixth-most populous city in the Southeastern United States, Southeast, and the list of United States cities by population, 27th-most-populous city ...

and spent much of her early life in the south. She later went on to graduate school in Ohio to pursue a doctorate degree in psychology. As a closeted gay woman in the 1950s and 60s, she became very interested in learning about marginalized people through research. Strickland has become an important figure for psychologists and feminists alike and continues to contribute to academia as a professor at the University of Massachusetts to this day.

Early life

Strickland was born on November 24, 1936, to Willie Whitfield and Roy Strickland in

. She later moved to

Birmingham, Alabama Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of Alabama, United States. It is the county seat of Jefferson County, Alabama, Jefferson County. The population was 200,733 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List ...

with her mother and brother after her parents’ separation and spent much of her childhood there. Strickland believes that growing up in the South had a major impact on her development in adolescence, and it could be considered a key inspiration for the research she has conducted during her career and her dedication to

civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' political freedom, freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and ...

. At age 14, Strickland joined a softball team that played an important role in her discovery of her identity. She met other girls that reminded her of herself, and through her team members’ support, she came to terms with her lesbian identity. Following the discovery of her sexual orientation, she spent time reading the Bible and other literature on the subject which led her to believe homosexuality was a bad thing, and she resorted to remaining closeted for a long time. Strickland's high school gym teacher helped her apply to Alabama College where she was accepted. As an undergraduate at Alabama College Strickland studied and received a degree in physical education but was introduced and took interest in psychology by a professor of hers named Herbert Eber. She then went on to get a psychology doctorate degree at

Ohio State University The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one ...

in 1962.

Psychology career

In 1965 she started the positions of psychology faculty member and active Dean of Women at

. During this time, she remained closeted, but she took part in an important psychology study that compared the mental health of homosexual and heterosexuals at the college. The data from this research showed that there wasn't an abundance of mental illness among homosexuals. In fact, the lesbians were found to have better mental health levels than heterosexual women. Following her time at Emory, she moved on to the

University of Massachusetts, Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst) is a Public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. It is the Flagship university, flagship campus of the Univer ...

in 1973. While at Emory, she created a course on lesbian psychology which attracted many students’ interests. In 1973 Strickland was a chair of the APA committee that pushed for more research on discrimination of marginalized groups. In 1987 Strickland became the seventh woman president of the APA. Additionally, she was the third ever woman president of the APA's clinical division and has served as president of the APA's Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual division Strickland has been teaching at the

for 46 years and is now a

professor emerita ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retirement, retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". ...

Accomplishments

Strickland is known for her time as president of the APA in 1987, but she has many other accomplishments of note. The APA Division 35 (Society for the Psychology of Women) issues the Strickland-Daniel Mentoring Award to recognize feminist mentoring in psychology. The award was originally known as the Bonnie Strickland Distinguished Mentoring Award but was later renamed to co-honor the award's first recipient, Jessica Henderson Daniel. In 2014, Strickland was awarded the Gold Medal Award for Life Achievement in Psychology in the Public Interest by the APA. Strickland has also written many pieces of literature related to her psychology passion. These works include The Gale Encyclopedia of Psychology, Including the Other in Psychology, and Misassumptions, Misadventures, and the Misuse of Psychology.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Strickland, Bonnie Ruth 1936 births Living people American women psychologists Emory University faculty University of Massachusetts Amherst faculty People from Louisville, Kentucky Presidents of the American Psychological Association American women academics 21st-century American women 20th-century American psychologists