By Oba Tsare Woodyard M.A.

Greetings Family!

My name is Oba Tsare Woodyard and I am the Student Circle Chair for the Association of Black Psychologists. I was born in San Antonio, TX to parents whose life’s mission and organizational work has been about the liberation of Afrikan people. Since birth, I have devoted my entire life to strengthening the Afrikan-centered institutions that our family assisted in establishing. I saw as my mission to become a psychologist in order to engage in the work of liberating the minds of Afrikan people. My undergraduate and graduate studies have all transpired at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), to include Prairie View A&M University for a Bachelor’s in Psychology and Florida A&M University for a Master’s in Community Psychology. I am currently a doctoral student at Virginia State University, pursuing a PhD in Clinical Health Psychology. In my research, I am interested in exploring the relationship between health and culture as predictors of physical and mental health symptoms among Afrikan Americans. Since 2007, I have been involved on a national level with the Association of Black Psychologists.

As the Student Circle Chair, I would implore students of Afrikan descent to arm ourselves with knowledge of the past, which is replete with unequivocal examples of the critical role student movements have played in the broader Afrikan/Black liberation movements within the United States and abroad. It was the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee that set up the Freedom Summer in Mississippi and pushed the issue of Black Power. It was the students in Soweto, South Africa, who sacrificed their lives and marched against the apartheid government pushing the issue of learning in indigenous languages instead of learning in Afrikaans. It was students from North Carolina A&T who started the sit-in movement. A young sister named Claudette Colvin began the bus boycott that eventually got the attention of the masses however, her great work went unannounced. It was the Black Psychology Student Association formed out of the movements of the Association of Black Psychologists that put pressure on the American Psychological Association to do more for Black psychology students. Finally, it was the students at the University of Cape Town in Azania who successfully led a Rhodes Must Fall campaign which led to the removal of a statue of Cecil Rhodes; and they continued to put pressure on the academy to remove the core of its white supremacist nature. As students of psychology today, we face many of the same challenges as did our predecessors in the 1960s and it is incumbent on us to continue the work of liberating the Afrikan mind, as well as expanding and developing the field of Black/Afrikan psychology.

This year our major objectives are to: 1) revitalize our visibility through an increased social media presence, 2) increase Student Circle membership specifically at HBCUs, 3) design a survey to understand the needs and wants of the professional and student members to improve the organizational structure of ABPsi and 4) educate students about the discipline of Afrikan/Black Psychology. Additionally, the Student Circle is committed to working in unity and solidarity with the professional members on the national board to ensure the intergenerational transmission of wisdom and knowledge within ABPsi.

I view myself as a millennial Afrikan psychologist. A millennial Afrikan psychologist is an activist-scholar, vigilant to the historical and current attacks being waged upon the Afrikan mind and one whose commitment and mission is the development and defense of Afrikan sovereign institutions. I am passionate about ABPsi, Afrikan/Black Psychology and humbled to serve in this position to contribute to the expansion and advancement of the ABPsi and Student Circle. Please feel free to reach out to me or my chair-elect to stay connected and get involved.

In Unity,

Oba T. Woodyard, MS
Student Circle Chair (2017-2018)
The Association of

“Liberate the minds of men (and women) and ultimately you will liberate the bodies of men (and women).”

– Marcus Garvey

“We can only correct our pervasive condition of oppression through the rebuilding of our Afrikan cultural infrastructure of Africentric institutions, values, beliefs and practices.”

– Baba Kobi Kambon