Board Members

Rachel Bayard-Cooks, M.A. – President

Rachel Bayard-Cooks holds a master’s degree in Social Psychology from San Francisco State University.  She is currently a doctorate candidate (PsyD) in Clinical Psychology at the Wright Institute in Berkeley, California.   She has several years of experience conducting research in sub-Saharan Africa examining the impact of HIV/AIDS on families living in Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe.  She has nearly five years of experience as a therapist in mental health agencies in providing individual, couple, family and group therapy with children, adolescents, and adult populations.  She currently serves as the Chapter President for the Bay Area Association of Black Psychologists located in Oakland, California.  Her interests include working with adolescent/children, adults and families living in underserved populations.

Jei Watkins, B.A. – Secretary

Jei a wife and mother, a graduate of Mills College with a BA in psychology, and a third-year doctoral student of clinical psychology at John F. Kennedy University.  My interest areas include infant development and infant-parent mental health.  Specifically, and of particular relevance to the Black community, it is my goal to interrupt cycles of intergenerational transmission of trauma in families.
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Amara Benjamin-Bullock, B.A. – Treasurer and Student Circle Chair

Amara holds a bachelor of arts degree in Psychology from San Francisco State University. She is currently a master of arts candidate in Counseling Psychology at Argosy University. For the past 4 years, Amara has worked at the Institute for the Advanced study of Black Family Life and Culture, Inc. as an Executive Assistant and Programs Manager working with HIV/AIDS, substance abuse and violence prevention programs and research. Amara also serves as a Marriage and Family Therapist trainee at Berkeley Youth Alternatives, and over the years, has volunteered and interned with multiple organizations serving the educational, cultural and social needs of children and adolescents.

Wade W. Nobles, Ph.D. – Elder Advisor

Dr. Wade W. Nobles is one of the co-founders and Past President of the Association of Black Psychologists. He is the founder and Executive Director of the Institute for the Advanced Study of Black Family, Life and Culture, Inc. and professor Emeritus of Africana Studies and Black Psychology at San Francisco State University. For over 40 years, Dr. Nobles has studied classical African philosophy and traditional African wisdom traditions as the grounding for the development of an authentic Black psychology. He states, “while I think I have spent my entire life seeking an understanding of African and African American history, culture, philosophy and spirituality, in actuality, I have been pulled and directed by a constant and immediate rapport with the invisible realm and the dwellers in heaven. I am a seeker of the Sakhu (illumination) because the African spirit is constantly with me and continually directs my path and purpose.“

Lawford L. Goddard, Ph.D. – Elder Advisor

Dr. Goddard possesses a broad multi-disciplinary social science background, having studied extensively in the areas of sociology, demography, education, history, political economy and cultural pluralism. As a sociologist interested in the issues of human development, Lawford is particularly concerned with such issues as health, adolescents, the elderly, mortality patterns, fertility values and population redistribution as they relate to social change and their impact on Third World communities and countries.