Thema Bryant-Davis
With 20 years of experience in trauma psychology, Dr. Thema Bryant-Davis is a professor of psychology at Pepperdine University.  Dr. Thema is a media psychologist who graduated from Duke University. She is a past president of the Society for the Psychology of Women and a past American Psychological Association representative to the United Nations.  She has expertise in the cultural context of trauma recovery and the use of expressive arts with trauma survivors. Her international women’s work has centered on Africa and the African Diaspora, with a foundation of decolonizing psychology from a womanist psychological perspective.  Dr. Thema has been an invited trauma recovery interventionist in West Africa, South Africa, and the Caribbean.  From a decolonizing perspective, her work contextualizes survivors in the various systems of societal oppression and integrates indigenous psychological wisdom.  Thema Bryant-Davis is a licensed psychologist and director of the Culture and Trauma research lab. She is author of the book Thriving in the Wake of Trauma: A multicultural guide and co-editor of the books, Religion and Spirituality in Diverse Women’s Lives, Multicultural Feminist Therapy: Helping Adolescent Girls of Color to Thrive, and Womanist and Mujerista Psychologies: Voices of Fire, Acts of Courage.  The California Psychological Association honored Dr. Bryant-Davis as Distinguished Scholar of the Year and the Institute of Violence, Abuse, and Trauma honored her work in trauma media for the film The Psychology of Human Trafficking, as well as her work trauma psychology mentoring.  She served on the DIV 52 and DIV 35 joint International Women’s Committee and on the APA Committee on International Relations in Psychology and Committee on Women in Psychology.