Nancy Boyd-Franklin


Nancy Boyd-Franklin is an American psychologist and writer. She is the author of five books and numerous articles on ethnicity and family therapy, and was invited by President Bill Clinton to speak at the first White House Conference on AIDS.

Early Life and Education

Boyd-Franklin was born in Harlem, NY on June 13, 1950 to Regina and Rudolph Boyd. Her father was a policeman and her mother a teacher. Her mother's family came from Jamaica and her father's family from North Carolina. After graduating high school, Boyd-Franklin attended Swarthmore College where she earned her bachelors of science in 1972. She continued her studies of clinical psychology at Teachers College, Columbia University, earning her Masters of Science in 1974 and her Doctorate of Philosophy in 1977.

Work

Boyd-Franklin is a professor of psychology at the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology at Rutgers University. Her books include Black Families in Therapy: A Multisystem Approach; Children, Families, and HIV/AIDS: Psychosocial and Therapeutic Issues; Reaching Out in Family Therapy: Home-Based, School and Community Intervention with Brenna Bry, PhD; and Boys Into Men: Raising Our African American Teenage Sons with Anderson J. Franklin, PhD. The second edition of her book Black Families in Therapy: Understanding the African American Experience was published in 2006. She is known for developing home-based and community-based therapies servicing black families, bringing psychology to the clients instead of waiting until clients come to the clinic. This system helps to organize and implement a treatment plan at the nuclear family, extended family, and systems levels.

Awards

In 1974, Boyd-Franklin was named Thomas J. Watson Fellow, which allowed her to study language and community in East and West Africa. 1991, she was cited for her Pioneering Contribution to the Field of Family Therapy by the American Family Therapy Association. In 1994, Boyd-Franklin was named Distinguished Psychologist of the Year by the Association of Black Psychologists. Boyd-Franklin received an Honorary Doctorate from the Phillips Graduate Institute in 2006. She was also awarded with a Drs. Charles and Shirley Thomas Award from Division 45 of the APA.