Beverly Daniel Tatum, 2005 Laureate

Beverly Daniel Tatum, President of Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia and noted author on racial identity and relations was named the 2005 recipient of the Brock International Prize in Education.

The Brock Prize consists of $40,000 cash and a sculpted bust of Sequoyah, the only Native American known to have created an alphabet. It will be awarded to Tatum during the Brock Symposium on Excellence in Education to be held March 28, 2005, at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma. The award is presented through the combined effort of The University of Oklahoma, The University of Tulsa, and Oklahoma State University.

Tatum has served as President of Spelman College since 2002, and previously served as Acting President at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts. She has held professorships at Mount Holyoke, Wellesley College, Westfield State College, and the University of California at Santa Barbara. Tatum holds a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in Clinical Psychology, a M.A. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Michigan, a M.A. in Religious Studies from Hartford Seminary, and a B.A. in Psychology, magna cum laude, Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut. She has authored and presented over 150 scholarly papers related to multi-cultural education and racial identity development.

One of Tatum's recent books, Why are all the Black kids sitting together in the cafeteria? And Other Conversations About Race is widely acclaimed as mandatory reading by faculty and community book clubs around the world. This book was the 1998 Multicultural Book of the Year for National Association of Multicultural Education, and is high on the “must read” list of the New York Times. Tatum is recognized as one of the most influential women in the USA. Noted by Essence Magazine as one of 50 Women Who Are Shaping the World (2003), and by Financial Women's Association as Public Sector Woman of the Year (2003).

Raymond Wlodkowski, Director of the Center for the Study of Accelerated Learning in the School of Professional Studies at Regis University, Denver, stated in his presentation of Dr. Tatum for the Brock Prize, “She is a scholar, an educator, and a leader in education. She is recognized as the most prominent promoter of racial identity development theory. This theory, a positive sense of one's self as a member of one's group as vital to psychological well-being, is proclaimed as a vital means to resolve multicultural issues in education and society.” Wlodkowski concluded by saying, “Beverly Daniel Tatum is like a lyricist who sings her own song; she has created ideas, carried them forward in words and actions and benefited the world."