Beverly Daniel Tatum Earns Highest Honor From the American Psychological Association

Beverly Daniel Tatum, president of Spelman College in Atlanta, received the Award for Outstanding Lifetime Contribution to Psychology at the 122nd Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association. The award is the highest honor given by the association.

The citation for the award said that “you have engaged the very difficult subject of race relations in the United States, and the impact of such an environment on identity development for African Americans.”

President Tatum, who recently announced she will step down at the end of the 2014-15 academic year, has led Spelman College since 2002. Before coming to Spelman College, Dr. Tatum was a professor of psychology and dean of the college at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts. Earlier in her career, she taught at Westfield State College in Massachusetts and the University of California, Santa Barbara.

President Tatum is a graduate of Wesleyan University in Connecticut. She earned a master’s degree at the Hartford Seminary. President Tatum earned a second master’s degree and a Ph.D. in clinical psychology at the University of Michigan.

Dr. Tatum is the author of the best-selling book, Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? And Other Conversations About Race.