PhD, Board Member

Dr. Theopia Jackson received her master’s degree in clinical psychology from Howard University, Washington DC and doctorate from the Wright Institute in Berkeley, California. She has held several leadership roles in higher education and is currently the Program Chair for Clinical Psychology in the Department of Humanistic and Clinical Psychology at Saybrook University in Oakland, California. Dr. Jackson is a licensed clinical psychologist practicing at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland in the Healthy Hearts program; formerly in the Department of Psychiatry and Comprehensive Sickle Cell Center. In addition, she has served as the President for The Association of Black Psychologists, Inc. (ABPsi) and past president for the Bay Area chapter. Her other professional affiliations include membership in the Association of Family Therapists of Northern California (co-founding member of the Cultural Accountability Committee), American Psychological Association (Division 32 Society for Humanistic Psychology: Member-at-Large), California Psychological Association (Chair: Division VII Diversity and Social Justice; Member: CARE Committee), and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. Additionally, she serves on the medical advisory council for Baykids Studios and for the Sickle Cell Community Advisory Council (SCCAC). Dr. Jackson has a long history of providing child, adolescent, and family therapy services, specializing in serving populations coping with chronic illness and complex trauma. She is an accomplished scholar-practitioner and educator who provides cultural competency workshops/seminars/consultation. She has been invited to participate on several national and local California initiatives intended to establish integrative health care that is culturally-attuned and linguistically responsive. Dr. Jackson is a life-learner who believes that professional knowledge both shapes and is shaped by community wisdom. She and her husband of 30+ years are the proud parents of three children, her best teachers. Honoring culturally-centered spiritual healing of creativity and resiliency, Dr. Jackson espouses: “What you help a child to love can be more important than what you help him [or her] to learn.” ~African proverb