Candice Nicole Hargons, PhD, was awarded a Presidential Citation for her deep commitment, courageous engagement, unrelenting outreach and remarkable skills in pressing forward social justice agendas in psychology; for her clear articulation of the numerous leadership roles psychology can take in reducing violence towards Black communities; for her social justice research focused on sex positive health and the dissemination of these efforts to reach individuals and communities.
Hargons was a leader in psychology’s focus on Black Lives Matter including being involved in coordinating the Solidarity March for Black Lives at the 2016 APA convention, creating the Black Lives Matter Meditation for Healing Racial Trauma for people who experience microaggression, oppression, and other traumatic racist incidents, initiating two national hashtag love campaigns for Black people, and hosting a podcast called “How to Love a Human” that focuses on individuals with multiple marginalized identities asking them to articulate what the world would be like if they were loved. These free resources combine loving-kindness, affirmation and mindfulness to promote healing among Black Americans, are readily available for free on the web, have been highlighted in the local and national press and picked up by numerous national blogs, and far extend psychology’s reach to many individuals and communities not previously served.
Although only four years post PhD, Hargons has been recognized with scholarly and community service-focused state and national awards. She has already served in many highly visible leadership roles in the Society of Counseling Psychology's (SCP) and APA. As a talented researcher, teacher, mentor, and leader, Hargons was selected and served on the faculty of the first SCP Leadership Academy. She provided astute insights into the design, implementation and evaluation of the year-long leadership development activities.
She is a critical force demonstrating an amazing ability to help organizations stretch and change to become more inclusive environments and engage in more outreach to serve a wider cross section of society with psychological interventions focused on prevention and support. Hargons’ unquenchable thirst for leadership development and organizational change has resulted in game-changing outcomes for Div. 17 and APA. Hargons is a great role model; she lets every student and ECP know that they can dream big and play significant leadership roles early in their careers.
For her commitment to leadership development and education and for her fearless research on and commitment to social justice, I, Rosie Phillips Davis, award This Presidential Citation to Candice Hargons.