President Isiaah Crawford Honored by the American Psychological Association

TACOMA, Wash. – University of Puget Sound President Isiaah Crawford is being honored by the American Psychological Association’s Minority Fellowship Program for attaining a prestigious leadership role in higher education as a result of his work, scholarship, and commitment to public service.

Crawford, a clinical psychologist, scholar, college administrator, and community leader, is recognized with the 2016 Training Advisory Committee Special Award. An alumnus of the Minority Fellowship Program, Crawford has often focused his research and scholarship on the needs of those in diverse and underserved communities. This is the third award he has received from the APA.

The award presentation was made at the association’s annual convention in Denver on Friday, August 5. Because of his commitments at Puget Sound, Crawford received the honor in absentia.

Crawford expressed his thanks for the recognition and gratitude to APA members for the impact the Minority Fellowship Program has had on his own life in a videotaped acceptance.

“Over the course of my own career and through my own research and clinical work, I have seen and benefited from the advances we have made in supporting the psychological and behavioral outcomes of the diverse populations we serve,” he said in his speech.

“The Minority Fellowship Program has a true and lasting impact on the lives of all that it touches. In my own case, I could not have imagined in my early days as an undergraduate at Saint Louis University that a career in academia lay in store for me. Professors, mentors, and programs like the Minority Fellowship Program helped me realize my own potential. They launched me on a path of working with young people—as a counselor, therapist, professor, and college administrator—to help others realize their potential.”

Crawford became president of the University of Puget Sound on July 1 this year. He joined the national liberal arts college from Seattle University, where he served as provost. Earlier, he was chair of the Department of Psychology and then dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Loyola University Chicago.

A private practitioner of clinical psychology in Chicago for 15 years, Crawford has been published in numerous scholarly journals on human sexuality, health promotion, and minority stress.

Over the years, he has served on many professional and community boards. He continues to devote time to public service, including a current board member for Providence St. Joseph Health in Renton, among other roles.

The APA’s Minority Fellowship Program provides training, mentoring, and career development to promising graduate students, postdoctoral trainees, and early career professionals who work or study in areas related to ethnic minority psychology. The program is committed to reducing health disparities among populations and to advance understanding of the life experiences of ethnic minority communities.

Press photos of President Isiaah Crawford can be downloaded from pugetsound.edu/pressphotos.
Photo on page: President Isiaah Crawford, by Ross Mulhausen

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