A Series on Black Lives Matter and Social Justice
During these 60-minute town hall style discussions faculty, students and well known alumnae will be in dialogue with local leaders and community members about the ways in which the collective can work together to continue the fight for civil rights.
Panelist Biographies
Bernice A. King, MDiv., J.D., C’85
Dr. Bernice A. King is a global thought leader, orator, peace advocate, and CEO of the King Center, which was founded by her mother, Coretta Scott King. From this position, the same one held by her mother, Dr. King continues to advance her parents’ legacy of Kingian Nonviolence, which she re-branded Nonviolence365™️.
Through her work at the Center, she educates youth and adults around the world about the nonviolent principles modeled by her parents. Under her leadership, the Center has implemented numerous initiatives, such as the annual Camp N.O.W. Leadership Academy, Nonviolence365 Trainings and The Beloved Community Talks, just to name a few.
She graduated from Spelman College with a BA in Psychology and from Emory University, with a Masters of Divinity and Doctorate of Law. She also received an honorary Doctorate of Divinity from Wesley College. She’s a member of the State Bar of Georgia, a trained Mediator, a member of the International Women’s Forum, the National Council of Negro Women and the 2020 Class of Leadership Atlanta.
Dr. King is an innovative leader dedicated to taking her parents’ legacy and teachings, The King Center, and the work of creating a more peaceful, just, humane world with Nonviolence365 into a new era.
Danielle Dickens, Ph.D. C’2009
Dr. Danielle Dickens is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at Spelman College. Dr. Dickens earned her B.A. in psychology from Spelman College, and her M.S. and Ph.D. from Colorado State University in Applied Social and Health Psychology. She is also a Co-Founder of
www.beneaththefacade.org, a website that serves as a psychoeducational resource and digital community for Black women coping with stereotypical expectations and gendered racism. As a Black feminist social psychologist, she leads a program of research that examines stereotypes, discrimination, and intersections of race, gender, class, and age in the U.S., with an emphasis on Black women’s experiences at work and higher education. Particularly, she is an expert in understanding how experiences of discrimination may result in a coping strategy known as identity shifting, which is the conscious or unconscious process of altering how one speaks (code switching) and behaves in order to mitigate the negative outcomes of discrimination. Also, she teaches a variety of college courses such as Psychology of Women and Psychology of Racism. In all, her teaching and research aims to contextually position and understand the lived experiences of Black women in the U.S in order to identify effective strategies to reduce inequalities and improve their mental and behavioral health outcomes.
Sophia Howard, C’2021
Sophia Howard is a Senior Comparative Women’s Studies major and Philosophy minor from Nashville, Tennessee, at Spelman College.
She has studied extensively the intersections of white supremacy and patriarchy through the reproductive rights of incarcerated women. Through this study, Sophia created Unlocked Minds, a book club in Whitworth Women’s Facility, a minimum and medium-security prison in Hartwell, GA. In her support and advocacy for incarcerated people, Sophia also serves as Vice President of Unite for Reproductive and Gender Equity (URGE) at Spelman and as the lead organizer working to create the Spelman College Period Project.
Sophia is the student leader of The Learning Club, an alternative sentencing and mentorship program at the Fulton County Juvenile Court, serving boys ages 12-17. She interned for the American Civil Liberties Union, working on the Smart Justice campaign for minimizing incarceration in the state of Georgia by 50%. She was the first undergraduate intern for the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama.
Upon graduation from Spelman College, Sophia plans to attend law school and become a public interest attorney, serving incarcerated citizens in the United States.
Patrisse Cullors
Artist, organizer, educator, and popular public speaker, Patrisse Cullors is a Los Angeles native and Co-Founder of the Black Lives Matter Global Network and Founder of grassroots Los Angeles based organization Dignity and Power Now. Cullors’ work for Black Lives Matter recently received recognition in TIME Magazine’s 2020 100 Women of the Year project. Cullors is a New York Times bestselling author of
When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir (2018). She is also the Faculty Director at Arizona’s Prescott College of a new Social and Environmental Arts Practice MFA program that she has developed. In 2019, Patrisse joined Freeform’s Good Trouble Season two as a staff writer and actor. She has continued writing for its third season. For the last 20 years, Cullors has been on the frontlines of criminal justice reform and led Reform LA Jails’ “Yes on R” campaign, a ballot initiative that passed by a 71% landslide victory in March 2020.
Rose Scott
Rose Scott is an award-winning journalist and host of the midday news program “Closer Look” heard on Atlanta’s NPR, station 90.1 FM – WABE.
In her role as a co-host and now host, Rose has interviewed foreign heads of states, cabinet members, U.S. ambassadors, numerous consul generals, state and local elected officials as well as civic and social leaders. Closer Look has become a signature broadcast for the community and brings together viewpoints from all sectors of society.
She leads the “Closer Look” team in presenting discussions centered on affordable housing, domestic violence, HIV/AIDS, immigration and criminal justice reform. With more than two decades of reporting in Atlanta, Rose has covered education, minority health issues, Atlanta historically Black colleges and universities, gender issues and sports.
Prior to moving into a permanent host role, Rose covered topics dealing with Georgia’s death penalty, sex trafficking of minors in Atlanta as well as the country’s biggest cheating scandal found in the Atlanta Public Schools.
She often moderates panels on the two topics. In 2013, Rose traveled to Amman, Jordan to report on Syrian refugees. Rose also has an extensive background in sports broadcasting and has appeared on various national outlets.
Well respected in the Atlanta community for her thought-provoking reporting style, Scott has been honored with several awards including a Southeast Regional Emmy Award, an Edward R. Murrow Award, Atlanta Association of Black Journalists Award and numerous Georgia Association of Broadcaster awards.
She has also received awards from the Georgia Associated Press and is a Girls Inc. Strong, Smart & Bold Award Winner.
Rose often speaks to youth groups, mentors journalism students and volunteers with youth empowerment initiatives.