Profile
Jessica Henderson-Daniel
Training Location(s):Post-Doctoral Training, Judge Baker Children's Center, (1974-1976)
PhD, University of Illinois-Urbana, (1969)
Primary Affiliation(s):
Harvard Medical School, Department of Psychiatry
Children's Hospital Boston
Boston University, Department of Psychology, (1989-Present)
Media Links:
American Psychological Association Profile
Jessica Henderson Daniel, PhD, ABPP
Professional Website
Jessica Henderson Daniel, Children's Hospital Boston
Biography:
Career Focus: Women; ethnic minority women; community health; mentorship; paediatrics.
Inspired by the power of the women in her life, Jessica Henderson-Daniel describes herself as a womanist. She grew up in the civil rights era and comments that,
Even though the faces...of the civil rights movement were men, the reality that we knew, even then, was that it was women. And now, of course, there are books and writings that tell us about the role of women...my mother was one of those women.
She saw women like her mother, deeply involved in community work, not only for the advancement of women, but for the good of the human race. Witnessing these actions for change inspired Henderson to effect change in psychology, not just for women but "for the good of the entire profession."
Henderson was born in San Antonio, Texas to a military family. Her family frequently relocated and her first year of university was spent in the Philippines. She completed her undergraduate at a historically Black college in North Carolina. She recalls,
It was an energizing time because we were thinking about change. It was a period of sit-ins and more active change, with some legislation, but it was really when people took to the streets, and the city.
The experience of training at a Black college gave Henderson a sense of affirmation that she could be who she wanted to be. After graduating in 1964, she continued on as a graduate student in psychology. In 1969, she was awarded a doctorate degree from the University of Illinois-Urbana.
As a psychologist, Henderson has been dedicated to creating spaces for the inclusion of marginalized voices and to empowering young students of colour. She jokes that, as a mentor, she supports students with food,
I bring them to my home. I cook for them. Everyone knows that two things I love are books and food. And so I would bring them to my house or take them to very nice restaurants to eat because I felt if I took them to a nice restaurant, it was about how I felt about them, just as I had been treated that way at the Black school.
Henderson now works as an associate professor of psychology in the department of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Beginning in the 1970s, her role at the Harvard Medical School was to act as a mentor to all students of colour. In 1995, however, when enrolment had grown among racialized populations, the department began to realize how unfair this was to Henderson. Nevertheless, this change did little to stop Henderson from realizing her goal of promoting students of colour through ongoing mentorship.
After spending over thirty uncomfortable years of attending research presentations of White people describing Black communities, Henderson asked an unwelcomed question,
I went to a meeting and in my best, most pleasant voice and most pleasant affect, suggested...that wouldn't it be marvellous for there to be collaboration between white and black researchers. It was like I dropped a bomb in the room... Just incredible anger and discomfort towards me.
This hostile reaction has been a motivation for Henderson's important work in providing leadership training to young researchers of color. She realized that food is not enough and that people need to begin to have intimate conversations with each other and build professional support systems that go beyond the superficial layers. Each year, Henderson facilitates a retreat for fellows and interns at Harvard Medical School to look at the intersection of their race, gender and psychology. She describes this experience as powerful and states that "at the next meeting, they talk to each other in different ways about things that they've never talked about before."
"Next Generation," a program Henderson established in 1998, has been another powerful medium where Henderson has promoted women of colour as leaders in research. Henderson's goal of Next Generation is for researchers who are women of colour to develop skills for securing "multi-year, million dollar grants". This mentoring program started when she began speaking to people about her idea and collecting grants. When she had raised 46,000 dollars, she hosted her first symposium at a resort. Describing the ingrained racism, she notes that "the person at the desk thought they were a basketball team, even though they were all doctors." The program was so successful that several participants have been awarded prestigious career awards. Henderson dreams of replicating this program each year, with programs for Black women, Latina woman, Asian woman and Native American women and eventually bringing all of the women together. Henderson is without a doubt changing the face of psychology. With her mentorship she is creating confidence in many young researchers who will go forward and challenge the inequalities and disparities that are embedded within mainstream health research.
by Jenna MacKay (2010)
To cite this article, see Credits
Selected Works:
Henderson Daniel, J. (2009). Next generation: A mentoring program for black female psychologists. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 40(3), 299-305.
Henderson Daniel, J., Roysircar, G., Abeles, A., & Boyd, C. (2004). Individual and cultural-diversity competency: Focus on the therapist. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 60(7), 755-770.
Henderson Daniel, J. (2000). The courage to hear: African American women's memories of racial trauma. In L. C. Jackson & B. Greene (Eds.), Psychotherapy with African American women: Innovations in psychodynamic perspective and practice (pp. 126-144). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
Henderson Daniel, J. (1995). The discourse on Thomas v. Hill: A resource for perspectives on the Black woman and sexual trauma. In K. Weingarten (Ed.), Cultural resistance: Challenging beliefs about men, women, and therapy (pp. 103-105). Binghamton, NY: Haworth Press.
Henderson Daniel, J. (1980). Black graduate students' choice of future work settings. The Journal of Negro Education 49(1), 77-84.