Rosie Phillips Bingham

Contextualizing a Life of Becoming

Rosie was born in Scott, Mississippi, in the heart of the Delta region on April 12, 1949, as the first child of Jake and Savanah Phillips. Eight siblings were to follow. Rosie has at least four older siblings from her parents’ previous relationships: two from her mother and two or more from her father. Thus, Rosie is one of at least 12 children. Like many African American families living in Mississippi in the 1940s, Rosie’s family sharecropped and lived on a plantation called Fallback. As sharecroppers, the Phillips family lived on and cultivated a plot on Fallback. The family was required to give a large percentage of the profits they earned from crops, such as cotton to the owners of the plantation.

Rosie grew up in an era and a place in which everyone worked hard and each family member had a job and place. Rosie described her early life before the age of 5 as being filled with hard work and one of childhood mischief:

On Fallback plantation we lived in what was referred to as a shotgun house. As sharecroppers we worked the cotton field; we chopped cotton [i.e., hoeing the cotton in the summer] and picked cotton [i.e., plucking the blossoms in the fall]. We lived in a place that conjures images of the country store where you would buy red soda pop, and peanuts, and mix it together and drink. My family grew vegetables in the garden near the house, like yams and butterbeans. Everybody had to work. As a kid I was also assigned work. I vividly remember one particular incident. Like many kids, I was mischievous. A neighbor down the road did something to me; I forget what happened. But I do remember turning around patting my butt [a sassy gesture in African American culture]. The neighbor told my sister Georgia, who was working in the field, that she was going to tell my mother. Georgia and I plotted how we were going to kill the lady. We were going to feed her some ants. I remember when my mother returned from the fields; she was sitting outside and I was in the kitchen sweeping. I heard the neighbor telling my mother what I did. I knew I was in trouble. My mother called me out, turned me across her lap and spanked me. What I remember about that story is the fact that I was actually cleaning; I was four or five years old. The point of the story is that in some ways children are so different now; when I was growing up children worked in some capacity.

Rosie’s life was filled with the love of family that countered many of the harsh realities of racialized poverty and Jim Crow policies. These realities are captured in the following story about being critically ill as a child:

I remember going to the hospital when my brother and I were very ill with typhoid fever. We got sick from drinking the water that was delivered to our house in barrels. I was sick first; my brother was later ill. I remember the hospital was divided into the colored section and the white section. My mother was very good to us and took very good care of us. And my father gave me a blood transfusion.

Rosie’s family moved to Memphis when she was 5 years old, after her illness with typhoid fever. The move took place at a time in which farm mechanization increased and consequently sharecropping as a mode of production was becoming obsolete. The Phillips family became part of the Second Great Migration in which African Americans from the Deep South fled racism and sought increased economic opportunities in more industrialized cities. The Phillips family did not migrate to a northern city such as Chicago, like the majority of African American Mississippians during this time. Instead, they migrated to Memphis to be close to family.

Overcoming Oppressions, Uncovering Strengths

The Phillips family moved to Memphis to live with Rosie’s paternal grandmother. Memphis was not a bed of roses, however. Rosie endured colorism (or the preferences for light complexioned people) within and outside of the family. The type of colorism Rosie experienced is part of a larger system of White supremacy and is not uncommon within the African American community from slavery until present day. Color stratification exists as reflected in the on-average greater educational attainment, annual income, and perceived attractiveness of lighter complexioned African Americans (women in particular) compared to their darker counterparts (see Russell, Wilson, & Hall, 1993). Racism structured Rosie’s larger social world in terms of the economic exploitation of her family and the inferior services provided to African Americans in the South. Colorism and sexism intersected to influence Rosie’s direct experiences of discrimination as a Black girl. Within the family, the lighter grandchildren were given preferences, and outside of the home, she was taunted with names such as “Black” and “ugly.” Poverty also played a role in Rosie’s development. The majority of African Americans in segregated Memphis in the 1950s were poor. Rosie’s family were the poor among the poor—the “church mice poor.” Although her family’s social condition was a source of embarrassment, it served as the impetus to achieve in school and later in life.

Rosie was resilient and actively challenged the external representations of her. She relied on internal resources such as her imagination to redefine the color and class discrimination to survive the torments and thrive in school:

Learning to cope with color issues outside of the home was a critical incident for me growing up. I dealt with being teased by learning to use my imagination. One way I used my imagination was to think to myself, “Every time somebody calls me ugly, I’m going to pretend I have a dollar, and I’m going to buy stuff that I want.” In addition to learning to use my imagination, I learned how to reframe a negative situation into a positive situation to make it more bearable.

Rosie learned to read at an early age, before starting school. Reading also served as a resource for her as she dealt with colorism and poverty throughout her childhood and adolescence. Reading fueled her imagination and enhanced her self-esteem:

Reading allowed me to escape. Reading allowed me to have a bigger vision for what my life could be. Reading also contributed to my vivid imagination. My imagination in turn enabled me to create things in my head. For example, as a child I imagined myself living in New York wearing a sophisticated suit and meeting the love of my life. Through reading I was able to imagine a different world. The fact that reading has the potential to expand one’s world is fundamental, especially to children who are in an oppressed situation in which their world experiences are restricted.

Rosie attended Manassas High School, founded in 1900 and one of the centers of pride of Black Memphians (Jenkins, 2009). In the mid-1960s, Memphis tried to integrate the public schools, but the Black students, including Rosie, refused to attend the new integrated high school. It was not that they opposed attending school with White youths; they had nothing against Whites, as they had very few interactions with them. These students identified with and were attached to their high school; they wanted to graduate from Manassas, a place they loved! Even today, graduates of Manassas get together regularly for activities such as monthly luncheons.

In high school, Rosie found acceptance and a sense of community with other smart and talented youths. Yet this acceptance came at a cost:

When I was in ninth grade, I was selected to be in the tenth grade club called the Deburetts. This club had about 20 or more members. I never thought I would be selected to be a member, but I was thrilled to be part of the group. The senior elitist club was the Double Ten Society. Members of the Double Ten were considered the smart kids, and many were lighter and were part of the middle-class. Although I was neither light nor middle class, I was selected to be a part of the group in large part because I was smart. Since I was bright, I was tracked with kids with more advantages. My friends who lived in my neighborhood were not in the same track. This means I had two sets of friends. I had my friends in the neighborhood who were my “walk around the block” friends, and my friends whom I spent most of my time with in school. I began to resent that my friends at home were not good enough. The various clubs would sponsor parties. Club members turned in a list of students to invite to the party. Inevitably, not one person from my neighborhood was perceived as “good enough” by the advisors to invite to the party. I did not like that kind of exclusion.

In reflecting on her childhood and adolescent experiences, Rosie identifies the poverty, perception of her neighborhood friends as not being “good enough,” and her family’s internal dynamics as helping her to be an accepting person of a wide range of people later in life. She also views the acceptance of others as an essential piece of her own self-acceptance.

Going to College and Coming Into Her Own

Rosie entered college in 1967 at a moment in which the country was undergoing transformation. The United States was changing rapidly in the mid-to-late 1960s. It was a time of protests against a war and injustices on the home front. During his presidency, Lyndon B. Johnson initiated a series of legislations designed to end poverty and racial injustices under the vision of the Great Society. The Higher Education Act of 1965 was part of these programs; the act increased access to higher education to racial minorities, and poor and working-class Whites. Thus, bright and talented students such as Rosie who would have been excluded from college previously were admitted and provided financial assistance.

Rosie’s strong academic record provided her with many college options to consider. She was accepted to a number of colleges; she ultimately decided to attend Elmhurst College, a small liberal arts college outside of Chicago. In high school, Rosie was relatively quiet, conservative, and tried to conform to the status quo. Rosie blossomed at Elmhurst. Like so many youth of her generation, Rosie’s social consciousness was awakened during her college years. Also during this time, the seeds of leadership that were planted in Rosie’s high school years as part of the Deburetts sprouted as she assumed a number of leadership positions in college:

I received scholarships to Mount Holyoke, University of Chicago, Vanderbilt, Cornell, Ithaca, and a number of other schools. I didn’t tell anyone that I was scared to attend some of the schools. My biggest fear was social. I was afraid that I would be isolated. I didn’t voice my concerns to anyone. Instead, I chose not to act on the scholarship offers. I ultimately decided to attend Elmhurst College. One of the recruiters came to our high school and recruited three of us. I received a full ride.

Elmhurst, Illinois, is a middle-class suburb outside of Chicago. The school is a beautiful, little school. In my class, there were about 23 African Americans. At the time I attended college, the campus was maybe 3,000 students. By the time I graduated from college, there were perhaps 150 African American students.

I had a great time in college, though. I began to participate in peace marches and other types of protests. I was very conservative in high school. I preferred Martin Luther King to Malcolm X. I believed in the domino theory of communism [the belief that if one country fell to communism then so would neighbor counties] and in the Vietnam War. These were values and beliefs that were reinforced by my high school teachers that I internalized. I began to challenge these beliefs in college. I came out against the war and I became active pretty early on.

I was a Resident Advisor in the dorm. I was president of the Association of Women’s Students. And I co-chaired the Black Leaders Organized and Consolidated. As part of the BLOC, we invited speakers like Betty Shabazz and singers like the Delfonics and the Dells. Black Panthers like Fred Hampton also spoke on campus. By the second semester of my freshman year, I began to develop a Black consciousness and embraced the slogan of the day: “I’m Black and I’m proud.”

We were also involved in campus politics. When the football players were going on strike because of perceived racism on campus, the Black students crafted a list of demands they wanted the administration to address. We enticed the president and the football coach to meet with the football players to discuss the concerns. They met in the Chapel. As they met with the football players, over 100 Black Students, my friend Tony and I as co-chairs of Black Leaders Organized and Consolidated, marched over to the Chapel; we would not allow the president or the coach to leave. We joined hands and we were not going to let them leave until they addressed the demands. We were so organized. The White students were outside of the Chapel; although I was not outside, I was told that they were protesting our actions. We were focused and we were scared. The police also came and were outside. We had a great president of that college. The president handled the situation perfectly; he calmly helped us to talk through what we wanted, among which was more Black faculty. The president must have worked behind the scenes because none of us went to jail. He helped us schedule a meeting with the Board of Trustees. I appreciated what he did.

This civil disobedience incident was a pivotal point for Rosie. In reflecting on the experience, Rosie and the other student leaders received very little guidance from their Black faculty advisors: “The faculty believed they were doing the right thing in not telling us what to do, but instead letting us arrive at our own conclusions.” Rosie wanted more from them than what they were able to provide. This is one reason Rosie actively provides students with direct and hands-on support; she provides students space to talk through issues, even controversial ones.

A number of social events happened in Rosie’s first year of college that significantly influenced the world around her. The 1968 Memphis Sanitation Strike took place in her second semester. During this strike, her father, who was a sanitation worker, marched with others to protest poor and dangerous working conditions and the lack of union rights and protection. Consistent with the racial stratification in most jobs during this time, the Black sanitation workers completed the dirtiest and lowest paying jobs. Rosie remembers hearing stories about Black workers being forced to “eat meals outside of the truck near the maggot infested garbage.” Martin Luther King, Jr., actively participated in these protest activities and was assassinated in Memphis toward the end of the 2-month strike:

When the strike began in Memphis, I began to send money home to help out with the expenses. I had two jobs. One job was a desk job at the university, which paid me a dollar an hour. I made more money at my other job; I cleaned the home of a nice White lady. She wanted her floors scrubbed. That meant I had to get on my hands and knees and scrub her floor. That was challenging. However, I learned how to clean from that woman.

I remember it was a critical incident when Dr. King was killed. The women students at Elmhurst were in the midst of trying to form a sorority. Elmhurst did not have sororities on campus at that time. The Black and White women who were interested in forming a sorority joined efforts. Without our knowledge, the White women that were part of this joint effort formed their own sorority. We were in the music listening room of the student center talking to these same White women students when my girlfriend Shirley slammed the door open and yelled, “Talking to these White people about having a sorority, and they shot Dr. King.” The death of Martin Luther King, Jr., created havoc on campus. This was an interesting time. As students, we talked; there was a lot of crying. We engaged in difficult dialogues. It was pretty amazing.

In following up with the story about the sororities, Rosie noted:

We never talked with the White women students about it again. Some African American women students joined city chapters of sororities in Chicago. Most of the students did not join sororities at that time. I joined Delta Sigma Theta [a historically African American sorority] in graduate school.

Rosie excelled in all aspects of college. She received good grades, was a student leader committed to social change, and worked. Her only academic difficulty was identifying an intellectually engaging major. Although Rosie did not major in psychology as an undergraduate, she stumbled onto counselor education as a master’s student where she was then introduced to the field of counseling psychology:

I had difficulty trying to figure out a major. I was bored in the general psychology classes. I’m amazed that I’m a psychologist. I wanted to be a history major. I was advised that history teachers “are a dime a dozen.” Since I told my advisor that I wanted to help people, he recommended that I major in sociology. He never suggested psychology. I followed his advice and I was disappointed in my major. This is why I believe if students have a passion, they should follow it.

Transitioning to the Real World— A Year of Reflection and Preparation

Rosie took a year off between undergraduate and graduate schools. The year provided her an opportunity to reflect on the nature of work and her ideas about social transformation she developed in college. She worked for the telephone company Illinois Bell, one of the largest employers of African American women at that time in Chicago:

As a sociology major, I knew I needed to obtain a graduate degree to move forward in a career. My first intent was to return to Memphis after graduating from Elmhurst to become a teacher. I went back and they were not hiring Black teachers to teach in my areas of interest. I returned to Chicago and worked for Illinois Bell, the phone company. That was a very good experience for me. I worked at Bell from the end of May 1971 until September 1972, when I entered graduate school. This experience prompted a shift in my thinking. As college students we talked about rebelling and the formation of a Black state. At Bell, I began to realize that working women were not going to strike for some of these causes because they had children to feed. It was a good growing up experience for me; it provided me space to question some of the assumptions I developed in college. Working helped me to become more of a practical realist; it helped me to put race relations in a little different perspective than when I was in college. It probably helped that my boss was an African American woman because I was able to see an African American woman who was responsible for a large office.

Finding Counseling Psychology—The Graduate School Years

Similar to many working-class students, Rosie did not have people in her community who modeled the range of career possibilities for college graduates, with the exception of teaching. She also attended college prior to the implementation of many of the formal mentoring programs to help underrepresented students navigate graduate school options. As a consequence, applying for graduate school was an unfamiliar process:

When I applied to graduate school I was not 100% sure what I was doing. I didn’t have a plan. I implemented a chaos theory of career development. I applied for and was accepted into graduate school at The Ohio State University. I loved being there. I was accepted in the M.A. counselor education program. My advisor was an African American faculty member named (Richard) Moriba Kelsey. I learned a lot about hard work from him; he would not allow me to take an incomplete and consequently I never took an incomplete throughout my graduate studies. I found psychology as a Student Personnel Assistant (SPA). The SPA students were graduate assistants and held various jobs around campus. As a SPA you could take classes in three tracks—the student personnel track, which trains you to be an administrator such as a dean of students; the counselor education track; and the psychology track. I don’t know why I chose the psychology track, but I chose that set of courses. Taking these courses brought me into contact with the counseling psychology faculty. Dave Shaw was the Director of Admission for the counseling psychology program. He told me, “You know, I think that you would be great in the counseling psychology program, and that you should get a doctorate. I chair the admissions committee, why don’t you have your folder sent over from the College of Education.” I arranged for my folder to be sent over. And later, I received a letter indicating “contingent upon finishing your master’s, you’re admitted into the counseling psychology Ph.D. program.”

Rosie established a strong and supportive circle of friends in graduate school, many of whom she remains close to today, particularly Alvenia Rhea Albright and Barbara Henley. These were the friends who were more like sisters; when “things got tough, they were there to support and bolster me.” In addition to the social support she received from her sister-friends, Rosie found a supportive advisor and lifelong mentor in Bruce Walsh while at The Ohio State University. Bruce provided her with instrumental support throughout her graduate years. For example, he helped her study for qualifying examinations by teaching her how to respond to questions on the basis of her knowledge. He also assisted her in navigating the political terrain of graduate school, and he continued to support her professional development through writing and other activities. She began to really appreciate Bruce’s support and guidance when deciding on who she wanted to place on her oral qualifying examination committee and then later when working on her dissertation:

As an eager and motivated graduate student, I wanted to prove that I was bright and capable. As part of these efforts, I decided to put on my oral examining committee the most difficult men on the faculty. Bruce approached me and said, “Rosie, didn’t you and so and so have a little disagreement?” I replied, “No, he was complimentary of me.” Bruce briefly responded, “Well, didn’t the two of you have. . .”. I later reflected on my conversation with Bruce and decided to follow his advice and remove the person from the oral committee. The entire faculty graded students’ written examinations at Ohio State. I did well on the written examination, with the exception of one set of low scores. Bruce commented, “You have one low set, but we called that one.”

I think a part of what cemented Bruce’s place in my life so firmly was his assistance and support throughout the dissertation process. We used cards to run data analyses when I was in graduate school. When I was ready to analyze my data, Bruce offered to meet me early in the morning and to stay with me as long as it took to complete the analyses. This turned into a day-long activity. I completed the analysis in the computer lab and returned to Bruce’s office. We reviewed the printout together, worked out problems, and identified the next steps. I returned to the computer lab and we repeated this process. Bruce also helped to pay for my materials.

Rosie’s dissertation built on Bruce’s vocational interest research in a number of important ways. Specifically, Rosie was interested in examining the applicability of career theories with Black women. There were very few articles on career issues with Black women at the time Rosie was working on her dissertation. A PsycInfo search yielded three articles published between 1973 and 1977 in this general area. Thus Rosie’s work validating two operationalizations of Holland’s Theory with college-educated Black women was groundbreaking. She spent a year collecting data on nearly 100 Black women with college degrees; findings from her study provide initial support of common assessments of Holland’s theory with this population.

After completing the dissertation, Bruce encouraged her to write a manuscript on the basis of the findings: “He was the first person to say to me, ‘I think we ought to publish an article.’” In fact, Rosie received her degree in 1977, and the following year she was the lead author on a Journal of Vocational Behavior article reporting findings from the dissertation. Bruce continued to encourage Rosie to publish research in general: “He asked me if I wanted to write a book chapter with him on career counseling with African American women, and so Dr. Connie Ward and I wrote the chapter.” Subsequently, Rosie co-authored a few other articles with Bruce, including the 2001 co-edited book Career Counseling With African Americans (Walsh, Bingham, Brown, & Ward, 2001). Rosie also established an independent line of research. She and her colleagues helped to articulate a model of conceptualizing and assessing career theory for women of color. For example, in her 1997 Journal of Career Assessment article with Connie Ward, they built on her earlier work and outlined four areas relevant for career assessment with racial and ethnic minority women, including: cultural (e.g., identity, structural oppression), gender (e.g., gender role socialization), self-efficacy (e.g., career), and traditional career assessment variables (e.g., values, interests).

In addition to nurturing her research, Bruce has supported Rosie throughout her professional career:

He is responsible for me being a fellow. One day he approached me and said, “Rosie, I think it’s time for you to be a fellow.” At that time, I was unaware of fellow status and its importance in the field. When I was not awarded fellow after the first nomination, Bruce phoned me and encouraged me to try again. Later in my career it was Bruce who gave me the oath of office as Division 17 president. He was so proud.

On Becoming a Professional

Rosie experienced a number of developmental turns in her journey to becoming a professional, including the in-between status of being all but dissertation or A.B.D., and securing and beginning her first job as a newly minted Ph.D. This period represents tremendous personal and professional growth:

When I was close to completing my doctorate I worked as a faculty member at Ohio Dominican College (now University), a small liberal arts school. I was offered an Associate Dean of Students position at Oberlin College, but I decided to stay in Columbus until I finished my degree; I was afraid of being an A.B.D. While at Ohio Dominican, I wrote a proposal for them to establish an Academic Effectiveness Center, and to hire me as the full-time director. And to my surprise, they did. When I finished my doctorate, they offered me a permanent Assistant Professor position.

A couple of things mitigated me staying in Columbus, the most important being an attractive job offer. My very good friend and peer David Cross and I attended the American Personnel and Guidance Association, which is now the American Counseling Association, in Washington, D.C. I noticed that Max Parker was on the program. I told David I wanted to meet him. David reminded me that “everybody wants to talk to him.” I devised a plan to invite him to lunch at the end of the question-and-answer period of his presentation. My plan was successful. Max Parker and I went to lunch. During lunch he informed me about a job at the University of Florida. That was how I interviewed for [and subsequently received] the psychologist position at the University of Florida counseling center.

Rosie quickly realized she made the right decision by moving to Florida. She enjoyed the clinical work. She also established strong and supportive relationships with a circle of women professionals in Florida. Jerrie Scott is one such friend; they remain close today. In fact, they are colleagues now at the University of Memphis. When Rosie started the new position in Florida, she proactively began to shape her career, letting others know one of her goals was to become a director of a counseling center:

I loved Florida. I saw a ton of clients—between my groups and my individual clients, I saw over 50 clients per week. I loved it! I facilitated a Black women’s self-enrichment group. In Florida, they really encouraged and supported my development as an emerging professional. Max Parker is the person who told me to write about everything I did. He disavowed me of the notion that I had to conduct a grand study and publish it; he encouraged me to write about my evolving theoretical developments and insights gained from my clinical work. I began to write and claim the work that I was doing.

When I accepted the job in Florida, I employed my own version of career development; I knew that I should begin preparing for the next job in my career. And the next job I wanted was to be director of a counseling center. I told the directors that were at the counseling center during my tenure at Florida of my interest. They facilitated my development by having me substitute for them at meetings. There were two counseling center directors during my time at Florida: J. Milan Kolarik and James “Jim” Archer. Jim Archer promoted me to Associate Director.

Finding Her Stride: Professional Development and Leadership

Rosie was promoted to Associate Director of the counseling center after 5 years in Florida. She enjoyed her work, but had her sights on a position with increased responsibilities. In 1985, she applied for and accepted a job as the Director of the Center for Student Development at Memphis State University, which later became the University of Memphis. The new position was ideal for her; it provided her an opportunity to direct a counseling center and, moreover, to be close to family. Rosie and her husband John Davis started a family with the birth of their son, Akil, and she wanted to raise her child around the love and support of a large extended family. Securing the Memphis job was a long process. Once hired, though, Rosie was quite successful in making important changes in terms of developing the center and improving student outcomes on campus:

I applied for the Director for the Center for Student Development. The person to whom the job reported sent a letter indicating that they had decided to close the search. I inquired why the search was closed, because I know that when a search closes it is generally because of one of two reasons: the pool is not strong enough or the institution lost funding for the position. The search was basically closed because the overall applicant pool was not satisfactory to the employers. I was told that I did not have enough budget experience. However, I was one of two or three people who were asked to reapply. They reopened the search immediately in hopes that they would have a satisfactory application pool. I reapplied and was subsequently hired. I became the director of the center, with a charge to start an APA-accredited internship. I came to the University of Memphis in 1985; we had our first internship class in 1987.

The creation of the APA-accredited internship site was part of a larger vision for the center. Rosie was able to grow the center in some important ways, including increasing the size of the center staff and further developing the testing aspect of the center. Under her leadership, the Testing Center moved to a new location, changed the coordinator qualification to that of a psychologist, and expanded the Educational Support Program to promote student learning and provide tutoring. These opportunities provided interns with experience and training in assessment, which was rare at that time. The Center also created the College: Getting Down to Basics program as an outreach effort to high school students interested in attending college. Rosie and her staff also initiated a program to promote Black student development. They formed Black Scholars Unlimited, which remains active today. According to the mission statement of the honor society, Black Scholars Unlimited is designed to promote academic excellence, leadership, and service (see http://www.memphis.edu/multiculturalaffairs/organizations.htm).

Shortly after V. Lane Rawlins became president of the University of Memphis in 1991, he asked the Vice President, Donald K. Carson, to restructure student affairs. Don restructured student affairs and subsequently created two assistant vice president positions. Rosie was encouraged to apply for one of the positions. Rosie accepted the Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs/Student Development position when it was offered to her.

Rosie was able to accomplish a lot during her 9 years as Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs. In this position, Rosie was responsible for the Health Center, the Center for Student Development, the Athletic Academic Center, Student Disability Services, and the Career Center. The accomplishments of her leadership team are extensive. I will briefly highlight a few. First, Rosie was able to transform the culture such that the five units, instead of working relatively independently, worked as a team. They identified the theme “Students First” and were able to prioritize budget requests as a team. Thinking outside of the box, Rosie and her team were able to revitalize and grow the Health Center, which was in danger of being eliminated. She also worked with others to increase the retention efforts of the university. This included (a) encouraging the university to hire nationally recognized higher education consultants to assist with recruitment and retention efforts, (b) influencing college efforts such that every college within the university (such as the College of Engineering) developed a retention plan, (c) conducting research to identify predictors of students success (they found that GPA was a better predictor than ACT score), and (d) instituting the first freshmen Introduction to the University course.

When Don Carson retired in 2003, Rosie’s son was a freshman in college. At this time, Rosie applied for the vacated position and also other positions in the country. Rosie was offered and ultimately accepted the vice presidency position. This new position increased her leverage to implement additional changes on campus and to promote student learning and development. Rosie was excited about the possibilities the Vice President for Student Affairs position provided and she was acutely aware of the university hierarchy, which many times devalues the contributions of student affairs. Rosie was also aware of the way in which race and gender played a role in how others responded to the leadership of women of color. Research shows that Rosie’s concerns were grounded in reality. Black women leaders’ authority is often undermined, in spite of the multiple ways in which their leadership as a group contributes to resolving conflict and negotiating resolutions (see Parker, 2005):

. . . it is really difficult for women and persons of color to have credibility when they step through the door. When I got the job as Vice President, I realized that everybody thought that they could tell me how to do my job. No matter which area they were responsible for. I just capitalized on that and used that to my advantage. I felt free to come into the meetings and make controversial suggestions because I knew people would dismiss me by saying, “She just doesn’t know any better.” This provided our team an opportunity to confront some really difficult things. I was able to turn a potential negative into a positive.

The previous passage highlights the ways in which racism, sexism, and their intersections may influence others’ responses to Rosie and more importantly Rosie’s refusal to be defined by these isms:

I want to keep on claiming my power. I have no interest in being a victim of sexism and racism. That is not to say that these two societal problems do not and will not affect my life. It is to say that in my fight with them, I want to use them to become stronger. (Bingham, 2009, p. 23)

There are a number of strategies Rosie used to enter the group of administrators at this level:

In addition to asking questions, I accepted my team and other administrators as full participants. I remained firm and clear about my position and that of Student Affairs. I also made sure I had data to support my observations and suggestions. What I found critical was to speak and speak often. When a woman enters a group such as this, I believe she must speak up because the group will interpret her silence as she does not have anything to contribute to the discussion and may even think that the woman is not fully competent. The group will then begin to ignore the woman and devalue her contributions to the team. Women must find their voice and speak. Part of the reason I continue to speak up is to encourage my team and others to wonder “What will Rosie think about this?” or “What is the Student Affairs point of view?” This is important because I advocate for the student point of view and I encourage this perspective to be at the forefront of our decision making whether I am in the room or not.

I work hard to attend all executive council meetings—to understand the issues of the University, to be prepared and to offer critical and relevant opinions on all important issues; I see myself as responsible for the entire university. I use humor to help build and sustain relationships as well as relieve tension in uncomfortable situations. I also work hard to understand the needs of my colleagues and will do whatever I can to help them achieve success. I try to go the extra mile to express caring and concern if I know of difficulties in their lives and/or the lives of their family members. I guess I work to use a full range of expressions—firm and fierce to soft and gentle. I use anger sparingly and laughter a lot.

The questions about Rosie’s leadership in her new role as vice president quickly changed once those unfamiliar faces got to know Rosie and her tremendous talent. Among the countless initiatives that Rosie has worked on in student affairs over the past 7 years include: significantly growing the number of living learning communities or theme-based residential hall communities designed to bridge academic, personal, and professional development (living learning communities have been shown nationally to have improved educational outcomes for students; Pasque & Murphy, 2005), significantly increasing revenue-generating ventures such as sponsoring a campus-wide housing fair and identifying staff teams to apply for federal TRIO program grants (which have been successful in securing nearly $4 million), and increasing student input through activities such as monthly luncheon meetings with students. The university’s Conference Planning and Operations Department was also moved under Student Affairs to become more profitable and is having great success. One of Rosie’s favorite activities she worked on as Vice President was establishing a scholarship in honor of her professional mentor—the Donald K. Carson Leadership Scholarship. She and a group of internal and external colleagues established the endowed scholarship. They were able to raise $30,000 in several months, and today the endowment has grown to over $100,000. Three students receive the award annually.

Among Rosie’s many leadership skills is the ability to reach across boundaries to find creative solutions to move forward. She uses this skill to create positive changes on campus in terms of race relations and administration and student relations. Two incidents in particular illustrate this point. Rosie intervened in an “institutional misstep” in handling a racial incident in 1995 as Assistant Vice President; she also was involved in thwarting potential campus outrage after a similar incident occurred in 2006, when she was Vice President. Both incidents involved interracial interactions between Blacks and Whites at a White fraternity party in which White fraternity members used racial epithets and both incidents resulted in student concern on campus. The “misstep” in 1995 mainly resulted from the minimization of the seriousness of name calling, lack of immediate action, and excluding multiple student voices in solving the problem. The successful outcome of the 2006 incident was due in large part because staff and administrators identified the problem as serious after hearing about it, involved all groups on campus to assist in solving the problem, and allowed the students to lead with support from the administrators.

Rosie’s training as a scientist-practitioner also contributes to her leadership effectiveness; making data-driven and supported decisions has helped her to grow important campus initiatives:

My training as a scientist-practitioner influences the way I approach and think about my work, even now in my job as a vice president. One of my mentors was the previous vice president and he loved a program called the Emerging Leaders Scholarship Program. He was afraid the university would cut the program when he left. When I came on board, I was committed to saving the program. I began to gather the existing retention and graduation data to determine if the program was effective. As we analyzed the data and compared it to other programs on campus, we found that the rates for the Emerging Leaders Scholarship Program were the best on campus. I was able to provide the president and the provost data about the effectiveness of the program in increasing retention. At that time it was a small program. The program worked with about 20 new students each year. The president and provost immediately told me that I could have 10 additional scholarship students each year. [Rosie and her staff have been able to more than double the size of the incoming class; the program has grown from having 80 total students on the 4-year scholarship to a total of 200 students.] I am now working with the university to increase the stipend for that scholarship, which I think I am going to be successful doing because I showed them the numbers. I believe in evidence-based practice. My staff and I have encouraged the university to consider the anticipated student outcomes from the various programs within student affairs; we want to move beyond the numbers to capture the benefits we hope students will gain. I also worked to restructure a program and a position to hire a Director of Student Learning and Assessment.

The Emerging Leader Scholarship Program is successful and continues to thrive. To date, the first-year retention figures range from 88% to 98%, the overall grade point average is consistently above 3.3, and nearly all of the graduates of the program are employed in their chosen careers or are attending graduate school.

Making a Difference in (Counseling) Psychology and in Her Community

Rosie demonstrated leadership skills very early on. As an undergraduate student she chaired the Association of Women’s Students and co-chaired the Black Student Union, and in graduate school, she helped create a new unit to support student development at Ohio Dominican University. Rosie has always believed she has “an obligation to make a difference.” It seems this value serves as the impetus for her working to make things better in the environments around her. Rosie has assumed leadership positions in a number of organizations, including serving as president of the Association of University College and Counseling Centers. As part of these efforts, she has made a huge difference in counseling psychology and the broader discipline of psychology through her various leadership roles (e.g., president of SCP, APA Council Representative, APA Board of Directors), initiatives she has helped to create (e.g., NMCS), and her historic bid for APA presidency. Below, Rosie discusses her introduction to SCP and her leadership experiences within APA:

When I decided to be a part of Division 17, Rosemary Phelps and I attended a meeting of the Ethnic Minority Committee. They were involved in a heated discussion. They were so focused on what Division 17 was not providing. They did not take time to help those of us who were really on the outside to try and be on the inside. Rosemary and I later talked to Naomi Meara. Naomi was my supervisor at the very start of my career, and she was going to be President of 17. She appointed us to committees. And thus began my work in the Division.

Jan Birk was chair of the ethics’ committee—she and I served together on the ethics’ committee and she was running for President of 17. I think because of her and because of this initial work that they nominated me to run for Member at Large, and I lost. Jan let me know that I only lost by a small number. The next time somebody asked me to run for Member at Large, I agreed and won. While I was on the Executive Board, we changed to our current vice-presidency structure. I served as the first Vice President for Diversity and Public Interest. Around this time the Executive Board also implemented additional changes within Division 17, and we dedicated a Council Seat for a minority person.

After two terms when I was rotating off of the Executive Board somebody asked me if I would run for President of 17. Initially I was not interested in running for president, but I decided to run because I wanted to help change the perception that people of color cannot be president. When I won, I was so shocked that I didn’t tell anybody for a week. I did not expect to win. But then it became a seminal event for me because at that time there was change in APA. Eight or nine people of color were presidents of divisions. Melba Vasquez of Division 35 and Derald Wing Sue of Division 45 were among those elected at the same time I was elected.

Melba, Derald, and I had similar ideas about our leadership positions; we wanted our presidencies to stand for something. The three of us and Lisa Porché-Burke, who was the current President of 45 at that time, had a conversation in DC about doing something meaningful. We discussed the idea of developing the National Multicultural Conference and Summit [NMCS].

These four visionary psychologists developed an influential and important multicultural psychology conference, bringing together scholars, practitioners, and trainees from various subfields in psychology. The inaugural NMCS conference was held in Newport Beach, California, in 1999 and focused on the mental health needs of marginalized groups in the United States. Although the intent was not to create a long-standing conference, the first NMCS was met with resounding success, so much so that a biennial conference was established. Rosie again helped to convene Summit II, held in Santa Barbara, California, in 2001. The goal of the second summit was to expand and deepen the complexity of our understanding of human diversity to include multiple forms of isms, power and oppression in treatment, research, and practice. The conference is now sponsored by Divisions 17, 35, 44, and 45 and has grown exponentially over the last decade. Rosie served as a keynote speaker at the 2007 Summit and received a standing ovation for her inspirational speech. For more information about the founding of the NMCS and the first two Summits, see Sue, Bingham, Porché-Burke, and Vasquez (1999) and Bingham, Porché-Burke, James, Sue, and Vasquez (2002).

After years of service to SCP and to APA as a counsel representative, Rosie became aware of and was unsettled by the friction between scientists and practitioners. At some point, a colleague encouraged her to run for the Board of Directors of APA. She decided not to run for that position, but later had an epiphany to run for president of APA:

I watched the 2006 Winter Olympics and was motivated to take action. I wanted to challenge myself and “go for the gold” so to speak by running for president of APA. I was particularly interested in addressing the scientist-practitioner split. At the 2006 February Council meeting, I talked briefly with Ron Levant, who was past president at the time. He informed me that it takes approximately $12,000 to run a competitive presidential campaign. I was aware of what others had spent, but I did not plan to spend that amount on my own campaign. He also reiterated that I would be running against Alan Kazdin. I knew I had a slim chance of winning, but it didn’t matter to me. The point was to run and say my piece. Once I started to campaign, so many people of color told me how important it was that I ran. I realized after a while that it was much larger than I. You never know how much people feel disenfranchised until you are out there. And then it became important to me that I run the best campaign I could. I ran to win. Even though I didn’t have a chance, I still wanted to do the very best I could. It was a good run.

In addition to using her skills to make a difference in the field of psychology, Rosie uses her leadership skills to better the larger community as well. For example, in Memphis she helped to establish the Women’s Foundation for a Greater Memphis, for which she served on the board for 13 years. The goal of the philanthropic foundation is to help girls and women reach their full potential, including helping women reach economic sufficiency. In 2002, she became Chair-elect and served in that role for 2 years, and then she became Chair for 2 years. During her time in a leadership position:

We raised nearly a million dollars that year. We also worked on the Hope Six Grants offered by HUD [U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development]. These grants provided funds to tear down old housing projects and rebuild them to provide better housing for people. Memphis was awarded one of the grants. However, the city did not include provisions for social services to assist the residents in the transition process. The city needed an organization to step up and raise the money for the social services component. The Women’s Foundation accepted the challenge. We were charged with raising over $7 million over the course of 7 years. While I was Chair we were able to help the city obtain two $20 million grants.

Family and Faith: Pillars of Strength in Her Life

Rosie’s family and her faith are priorities in her life. She is happily married to John Davis, whom she describes as a wonderful person. Rosie and John cherish their now adult son, Akil. Both of these relationships have been significant in her life. Rosie nurtures these relationships by placing them above all else. A symbolic gesture of this priority is her acceptance of calls from her son, even if she is in an important meeting. This helps communicate to her son that he is a priority and that he always has access to her. As a strong, independent, but traditional career woman, she also finds ways to affirm and support her husband:

There are things I learned from other women that have been useful to me. Some of it has to do with how to have a good relationship with your partner. Part of the secret is to understand the need that each person brings to the relationship. For example, with me I have a really successful marriage and I think it’s because I have a great guy for a husband. He is very supportive; he does all kind of work. I also try to understand when he needs something and I try to give that to him.

Rosie’s faith also provides her with purpose and meaning. She described two separate incidents highlighting the role of faith in her life:

The part of my life that is super-powerful, that it’s hard for people to understand who are not believers in God, is the power of God in my life. I had an experience when I was out jogging, struggling with some things such as the tragedies on our campus, and I heard the voice of God say, “Go home and read Matthew the 28^th chapter; it will say ‘Lo, I am with you always, even until the end of the world.’” Of course, I was afraid to go home, because I am not a Bible scholar or anything like that. I ran home, opened the Bible, and there it was. I will periodically have dramatic experiences like that and they carry me a long way.

Another such incident occurred in 2002 after attending a training meeting in San Francisco:

As I was walking in the park the voice of God spoke to me and said these things: “Turn your depression to joy, your anxiety to excitement, and your fear to faith.” Since then I always apply those things. Initially, I might say, “OK, God, but what about my anger?” [Laughter] But I could never get past just those first three. These are guiding principles for me, and so I never have a bad day. I haven’t had one since 2002.

Mentoring and Friendship: Coming Full Circle

Professionally, what really makes me happy is working with students. The part of my job that I like best is being a cheerleader for students—talking with them and getting them excited about being in college and their possibilities. I love that!

Rosie has always been committed to student development, as was evident early in her career with her work at Ohio Dominican University, and she continues in her focus on student learning outcomes as an administrator. Rosie works on behalf of students on a personal level, showing individual interest in who they are as people and as students, and in her various professional positions, she implements institutional programs to support student development. This commitment is also reflected in her interpersonal style and mentoring approach with students, community members, and professionals alike. She provides the same type of instrumental support she received in graduate school. For example, similar to the way Bruce Walsh helped her prepare for her qualifying examination, Rosie worked closely with a number of White non-traditional women who returned to the University to retake their qualifying examinations; each of these women subsequently passed the examination. Dr. Sandra Shullman, noted counseling psychologist and longtime friend from graduate school, describes her style as follows:

Rosie epitomizes how to leverage the power of human potential through positive approaches, inclusion, diversity, and empowerment. She knows how to bring out the best in all others, and in so doing, we see, feel, and embrace the strength, courage, and integrity of her convictions.

Rosie’s investment in others is seen in both her mentoring relationships and friendships. Dr. Barbara Henley, Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs at the University of Chicago and another longtime friend, summarizes the kind of friend and mentor Rosie is to many:

I have known Rosie for over 35 years as a friend, confidante, and colleague. She is highly intelligent, vibrant, witty, wise, thought-provoking, introspective, analytical, genuine, and caring. It is these qualities that have attracted so many mentees to Rosie. She continues to give generously of herself, her time, and her knowledge. As a mentor, many students and professionals have benefited immensely from their interactions with her and have become better individuals and psychologists as a result. Rosie’s impact is far-reaching and enduring. I am blessed to have her as a true friend.

In celebration and recognition of her contributions to the development of others, Rosie has received a number of awards, including the SCP Lifetime Achievement in Mentoring award, the Division 45 Charles and Shirley Thomas Award for mentoring and contributions to African American students and community, and the Teachers College/Columbia University Janet E. Helms Award for Mentoring and Scholarship.

Moving Beyond Failure, Embracing Success: Words of Wisdom to Emerging Professionals

Starting from humble beginnings, Rosie has become a strong, independent, and confident psychologist and leader. Her story is one of hard work, integrity, and persistence, and thus, it is no surprise that the advice she offers to graduate students and new professionals is “to be tenacious and to not give up when things don’t go as you planned. That is because I think about how I became a fellow and how I got my diplomate in psychology.” After not receiving fellow status in Division 17, Rosie worked with a team to put together a strong package extolling her strengths and contributions:

Some people get discouraged after being turned down for something they applied for or tried for; I was turned down for fellow of Division 17 more than once. I also applied for diplomate status more than once. In the application materials, it stated that applicants should identify a mentor to assist in the process. But I did not do that. I thought I could figure out the application process myself. I was turned down on my first try. I then decided to seek out help. I found some very critical people who were already diplomates who might be able to give me constructive feedback. I opened up my work to them so they could tell me where my weaknesses were and what I needed to do differently. The application required candidates to demonstrate their therapeutic approach. I was asked to provide a transcribed therapy session that best represented my theoretical orientation. I was eclectic; I still am for that matter. One of the people who I asked to help evaluate my work told me that I would never pass the process if I claimed I was eclectic. He encouraged me to pick another orientation. I decided to stick with my eclectic orientation description. I believed that I shouldn’t have the diplomate status if I couldn’t pass the examination based on what I do. At the end of the process, the examiners told me that my application was one of the best they had seen.

It was very nice because I was able to remain true to myself. But the lesson in that for me was to be tenacious if you want to get something and to not let failures define you. Some people will look at those of us who have lived longer and have accomplishments and think, “Wow, I can’t do that.” And the fact of the matter is that sometimes the journey is not a smooth straight path. There are deviations, and bumps, and what not. It is important to know that the road has not been easy for anyone. Failure is never forever; you can always turn that around. And most importantly, you can succeed through hard work, faith, and persistence!