Gargi Roysircar is the recipient of the 2017 Strickland-Daniel Mentoring Award of the American Psychological Association’s Division 35, Psychology of Women. This award recognizes the feminist mentoring of the Strickland-Daniel Award winner and honors Bonnie R. Strickland and Jessica Henderson Daniel for their distinguished mentoring.
Gargi was nominated by Melissa Boudreau (PsyD ’14), Josefina Irigoyen (PsyD ’14), Allyssa Lanza (PsyD ’15), Bola Afolayan (PsyD ’15), Katherine Russell (PsyD ’17), and Courtney Condiracci (5th yr. PsyD). A letter of support was co-authored by Jane Studeny (4th yr. PsyD), Ashland Thompson (4th yr. PsyD), and Lauren Weisberg (5th yr. PsyD). External letters of support were provided by Dr. Jill Lee-Barber (Director, Psychological Services and Health Center and Chief Psychologist, Georgia State University), Dr. Melissa L. Frey (Associate Professor and Program Director, Counseling Psychology, The University of Oklahoma), Dr. Lise Osvold (psychologist in private practice, Raleigh, NC), and Dr. Lawrence Gerstein (Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Director of Conflict and Peace Studies Center, Ball State University). Gargi has mentored and done research with all the above women, men, and individuals of color in the past 30 years as a faculty member at Antioch University New England (2000-2017) and University of Nebraska-Lincoln (1987-2000).
About the Strickland-Daniel Mentoring Award
Bonnie Ruth Strickland has served psychology in many roles and leadership positions, including as President of the American Psychological Association and as a member of the Advisory Council to the National Institute of Mental Health. Through her scholarship and her advocacy, Dr. Strickland provided insight into issues of privilege and barriers to access in relation to race, regionalism, gender, age, and sexual orientation. As a mentor at the national level, she organized formal workshops to assist diverse women in accessing positions of leadership within the organizations and hierarchies of psychology. Throughout her career, Dr. Strickland has demonstrated a generosity of spirit in supporting women in psychology in their pursuit of their goals.
Named as the first recipient of the Bonnie Strickland Distinguished Mentoring Award, Jessica Henderson Daniel was subsequently co-honored in the naming of the award. Dr. Daniel has served psychology in many roles and leadership positions, including as President-Elect of the American Psychological Association and as a founding faculty and Executive Committee member of the APA Leadership Institute for Women in Psychology. She has focused her career primarily on instruction, training, supervision, and mentoring, particularly for women and people of color. Dr. Daniel has developed both formal and informal mentoring networks for graduate students, interns, post-doctoral fellows, and professional psychologists, and she has been an inspirational mentor who teaches others to mentor in turn.
The award recognizes the feminist mentoring of the award winner whose mentoring includes several of the following components:
- Introduces mentees to professional contacts and networks
- Takes a personal interest in mentees
- Provides coaching, supervision, and consulting to women psychologists in practice
- Develops an inclusive network of professionals and mentees that includes women who are diverse in race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender expression and identity, (dis)ability, nationality, religion, and other cultural/demographic characteristics
- Interacts with mentees in formal, informal, and social settings
- Promotes democratic and non-hierarchical styles of interacting
- Offers formal mentoring events and programs
- Models or discusses issues of managing multiple professional and personal roles
- Provides encouragement and advice to women seeking leadership positions within their agencies and institutions
- Encourages women to participate actively in Division 35 and APA committees and governance
Learn more about the Strickland-Daniel Mentoring Award
