Jessica Henderson Daniel, PhD, ABPP
Jessica Henderson Daniel, PhD, ABPP, is a member of the Leadership Institute for Women in Psychology and is Associate Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. At Children's Hospital, Boston, she is Director of Training in Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry and Associate Director of the LEAH (Leadership Education in Adolescent Health) Training Program in the Division of Adolescent Medicine. Also, she is an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Clinical Psychology Program at Boston University.
In 1993 as chair of the Massachusetts Board of Registration of Psychologists, she proposed that the Board consider passing regulations requiring both instruction and training about people of color in order to be licensed as a private practitioner in Massachusetts. After public hearings, the regulations passed. Massachusetts continues to be the only state with such regulations. In recognition of her reorganization of the Board and the passage of these regulations, she received the 1993 Massachusetts Psychological Association (MPA) Ezra Saul Psychological Service Award and the 1995 Boston Section of the National Council of Negro Women’s Courage of Conviction Award.
In the American Psychological Association (APA), she has served as president of the Society for the Psychology of Women ( SWP-Division 35) and a member of the Task Force on Adolescent Girls, the Committee for the Advancement of Professional Practice (the Practice Directorate Board), and the Council of Representatives (chairing both the Women’s Caucus and the Public Interest Caucus). In addition, she has been the senior member of the Early Career Psychologist Task Force, Chair of the APA Presidential Centering on Mentoring Task Force and the first African American elected to the position of member-at-large on the APA Board of Directors. While in the latter role, she initiated the formation of a Task Force on Resilience and Strength in Black Children and Adolescents. As president of SPW, she formed two task forces: Early Career Psychologists and Adolescent Girls. Both are now standing committees in the division. She also founded a mentoring group for early career women psychologists of color who had been identified as potential leaders. The mentors were senior women of color who had been leaders in SWP. Several of the women have become leaders in APA, in other professional organizations and at their respective universities or work sites. Finally, she implemented a leadership model used in Division 17—the monthly leadership telephone call involving the president, past president and president-elect in order to provide mutual support.
For many years, Dr. Daniel has been concerned about the small number of research psychologists who are persons of color. With a vision of a mentoring program for women of African descent, she was successful in pursuing funding from the National Institute of Health, the Kellogg Foundation and Harvard Medical School for the Next Generation Program, an ethnically based mentoring program for early career women of color who are committed to research careers that focus on adolescents. The NG Women’s achievements include the following: three are recipients of K Career Awards, three are associate professors and two are employed at research-related agencies (Institute of Medicine and Centers for Disease Control).
Her career has primarily focused on instruction, training and mentoring. Dr. Daniel’s contributions as a mentor were recognized by Harvard Medical School in 1998 when she received the prestigious A. Clifford Barger Excellence in Mentoring Award—the first woman, the first person of color and the first psychologist to be so honored. She is the recipient of mentoring awards from the American Psychological Association of Graduate Students (1999), the Society for the Psychological Study of Ethnic Minority Issues (2003) and the Society for the Psychology of Women (2006). Beginning in 2007, the latter award was re-named the Strickland-Daniel Mentoring Award. She also received the 2001 Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Illinois-Urbana, the 2002 APA Distinguished Award for Education and Training, the 2004 MPA Kenneth D. Herman, PhD, JD Career Contribution Award, the 2006 APPIC (Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers) Award for Excellence in Psychology Diversity Training and the 2008 CWP Distinguished Leader for Women in Psychology Award. She is an APA fellow.
