The American Psychological Association (APA) has awarded the Heritage Award toDr. Fran Trotman in recognition of her exemplary and highly distinguished contributions to the field of the Psychology of Women.
Dr. Trotman received her second masters and a PhD in Counseling Psychology from Columbia University in the mid-70’s, while working as a Guidance Counselor in Northern New Jersey. One of her first publications, Race, IQ, and the Middle-Class (1977) in APA’s Journal of Educational Psychology, was one of the first research articles which used only women and girls as subjects. Dr. Trotman continues to focus her research and articles on girls and women. Dr. Trotman Has been a PracticingLicensed Psychologist since 1979.
As a counseling psychologist, teacher, and supervisor of practitioners, much of her scholarship and legacy to psychology is to the broadening of the definitions of mental health. By being one of the pioneering
independent practitioners to expand the concept of the psychotherapy client to include various classes, races, cultures, and sexual preferences, her publications and presentations have helped to change our views about what is healthy or pathological. This in and of itself frees many from some of the tyranny of ethnocentric and sexist beliefs. Dr. Trotman has also contributed to feminist psychotherapy in her roles as teacher and supervisor.
Fran Trotman was the Founder and Director of the very successfulContemporary Counseling and Psychotherapy Institute where she has supervised over 23 psychotherapists in her 3 buildings and 11 offices in Bergen and Hudson counties.Hired in 1995 to revive and direct a University's graduate program in psychological counseling, Dr. Trotman has contributed her knowledge and expertise to hundreds of young minds. As their mentor and feminist role-model, her students are greatly influenced by her as a strong and accomplished woman, mentor and ethnic minority. Until 2011, Dr.Trotman was the first and only ethnic minority to ever be tenured at her University. For many of her students, she is the first woman of color to stand in front of them at any level of their educational experiences. Having seen women of color on their campus mainly in the roles as food services workers and janitors, her students have now been influenced by a woman of color whom they have learned to admire and respect.
Her students also now have the only stand-alone graduate department in her university. Under Dr. Trotman’s chair, her program became the first CACREP-accredited mental health program in the state of New Jersey. As a professor, Dr. Trotman strives to ensure that her students are well-rounded counselors and she has not only hosted speakers like Albert Ellis, Irvin Yalom, Monica McGoldrick, Beverly Greene, and Don Meichenbaum for students, but has also taken students on trips to Harlem, hip-hop tours, soup kitchens, Native American habitats, Hispanic neighborhoods Seneca Falls and sections of the Underground Railroad, and has exposed them to Nigerian, Jamaican, gay, lesbian and transgendered encounters, Caribbean, Muslim, Orthodox Jewish cultures, etc. where they not only read about but also experience and immerse themselves in the experience of each group.
Her record of scholarship and many of her life’s social justice accomplishments (e.g., President of the N.J. Association of Black Psychologists, world travel, global presentations and consultations, etc.), as well as her protests and incarcerations for civil rights, all attest to her feminist practice and dedication to the psychology of women and gender; as well as her awareness of individual and cultural diversity as pertinent to her scholarship, practice, assessments, interventions, consultations, and to her teaching/supervision and administration.
Dr. Trotman's first book (with Dr. Claire Brody)addressed issues ofpsychotherapy and counseling with older women. Dr. Trotman’s scholarly expertise extends to the psychological, social, educational and mental health concerns of children and youths in schools, community, and mental health care. Her two books (with Dr. Morales), as well as her articles and presentations demonstrate her research and ideas on academic resilience. Her scholarship reflects her interest in the academic and socio-emotional development of children and adolescents, as well as evidence-based preventions and interventions, to support the growth and well- being of youths. Dr. Trotman’s work reflects her experience and expertise with children and adolescents as a School Counselor in middle school, high school and college. Much of her research and scholarship reflect her scholarly expertise on the psychological, social, educational and/or health outcomes of children and youth in settings such as schools, community, and health/mental health care.Many have assigned her work on Race, I.Q. and the Middle-Class for almost 4 decades. It is a seminal piece about her research on young people which helps in questioning the early ‘findings’ of Arthur Jensen and Richard Hernnstein.
Dr. Trotman has also demonstrated her commitment to the health and well-being of the community through her founding and direction of her university’s Center for Human and Community Wellness (CHCW); for which she solicited and wrote grants to provide programs for students to provide services and counseling to the community. She also assisted the Long Branch Housing Authority (LBHA) with a HUD proposal through which the LBHA secured a 20 million dollar grant to provide services to the community. LBHA then contracted with Dr. Trotman, her students and the university to give Dr. Trotman a $250,000.00 subcontract to assist students in providing social services to the community.
Many have seen Dr. Trotman in her roles as teacher and advisor and can attest to her dedication, competence and success in the areas of teaching and advising. Students demonstrate and express great respect and admiration for Dr. Trotman. As the first and only African American to be tenured at her university, Dr. Trotman is the first African American teacher that many of the students have ever encountered. The students’ admiration and respect for her as a teacher, advisor and department head are quite evident. Dr. Trotman is dedicated to excellence in teaching and the advisement of students.Her presence and her contributions have made a difference in the lives of the students and others with whom she has come contact, helping to also subtly dispel their stereotypes of African American women.
Dr. Trotman has taught and advised undergraduate and graduate students. She has supervised student’s research and clinical practice. Having built and developed a psychological counseling program for almost 2 decades, she is very familiar with all levels of a counseling psychology curriculum.
Dr. Trotman was hired by her university’s undergraduate Psychology Department in order to attempt to revive their failing graduate program of only 5 disgruntled students. Expecting the program to fail, the Psychology Department contracted that Dr. Trotman would remain a tenure-track psychology faculty in such an event. Fran almost single-handedly built and developed the Psychological Counseling Program as the Program Director and then Chair of the Department of Psychological Counseling. She developed and expanded the program so that it was so large and successful that she arranged to separate it from the Psychology Department to become the only ‘stand-alone’ graduate department in the university. Dr. Trotman worked with the State Licensing Board to enable students to fulfill the educational requirements for licensing and developed a 60 credit M.S. in Mental Health Counseling. She then led her department through the accreditation process (CACREP), to become the first accredited 60 credit Mental Health Counseling Program in the State of New Jersey.
As an outspoken advocate for social justice, Dr. Trotman introduced multicultural experiences to the University and her students.
Fran has been one of the prime movers in the development of the international interdisciplinary conference on race and ethnicity at her university. This conference was first organized in 2008 and it involved the participation of scholars from twelve nations and fifteen U.S. states including prominent race scholars such as Alan H. Goodman (former president of the American Anthropological Association). I assisted Dr. Trotman in the development of a day-long presentation of events honoring African American women who were presidents of U.S. colleges and universities who were given awards by Dr. Trotman as part of the all-day event. Fran was intimately involved in the internal fundraising and organizational aspects of this important conference by helping to ensure that each panel was interdisciplinary, as well as by maintaining a conference budget that has remained in the black since the 2008 conference. Following the success of the first conference, a member of the Board of Trustees endowed the conference with a one hundred thousand dollar gift to support the event for the next several years. The University’s “International Interdisciplinary Conference on Race” is now a regular biennial event at the University. In addition to her many other achievements, Dr. Trotman has been nominated several times for the “Unsung Hero Award” for service to the University.
Dr. FranTrotman continues her research and scholarship in psychology and is, indeed, an exemplary and outstanding psychologist and role-model.