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16 Facts About Bonnie Strickland

1.

Bonnie Ruth Strickland was born on November 24,1936 and is an American psychologist and academic.

2.

Bonnie Strickland later went on to graduate school in Ohio to pursue a doctorate degree in psychology.

3.

Bonnie 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.

4.

Bonnie Strickland was born on November 24,1936, to Willie Whitfield and Roy Bonnie Strickland in Louisville, Kentucky.

5.

Bonnie Strickland later moved to Birmingham, Alabama with her mother and brother after her parents' separation and spent much of her childhood there.

6.

Bonnie 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.

7.

At age 14, Bonnie Strickland joined a softball team that played an important role in her discovery of her identity.

8.

Bonnie Strickland met other girls that reminded her of herself, and through her team members' support, she came to terms with her lesbian identity.

9.

Bonnie Strickland then went on to get a psychology doctorate degree at Ohio State University in 1962.

10.

In 1973 Bonnie Strickland was a chair of the APA committee that pushed for more research on discrimination of marginalized groups.

11.

In 1987 Bonnie Strickland became the seventh woman president of the APA.

12.

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 Bonnie Strickland has been teaching at the University of Massachusetts Amherst for 46 years and is a professor emerita.

13.

Bonnie Strickland is known for her time as president of the APA in 1987, but she has many other accomplishments of note.

14.

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.

15.

In 2014, Bonnie Strickland was awarded the Gold Medal Award for Life Achievement in Psychology in the Public Interest by the APA.

16.

Bonnie Strickland has written many pieces of literature related to her psychology passion.