William E. Cross, Jr., a scholar who studies the psychology of African-American identity development in the United States, is head of Social-Personality Psychology, a subprogram of the Ph.D. Program in Psychology, and is affiliated with the interdisciplinary concentration in Africana Studies. He earned his Ph.D. from Princeton University and taught at Cornell University, Penn State, and the University of Massachusetts before coming to The Graduate Center. His 1991 groundbreaking book, Shades of Black: Diversity in African American Identity, is one of the most frequently referenced texts on black identity. His model conceptualizing the states of black identity development has generated an ever-expanding number of essays, commentaries, and empirical studies. In addition, his ideas have stimulated the growth of identity-development models for application to a wide range of groups, including gays and lesbians, Hispanic/ Latinos, Asian Americans, feminists, and white European Americans.

Photo: Don Pollard