C.A.P.S.’ Only Black Female Psychologist Reflects On What Brought Her to UCSB

From the Daily Nexus

In 2012, the Black Student Union released a set of demands calling for more dedicated attention to the recruitment and retention of Black students on campus.

One of the demands, in particular, addressed the university’s lack of resources for Black students. The Black Student Union (BSU) cited Counseling and Psychological Services (C.A.P.S.) in particular as void of staffers who could understand their experiences.

As a result, two Black psychologists – Meridith Merchant and Mario Barfield – were hired in September 2013 by former C.A.P.S. Director Jeanne Stanford.

For Merchant, the demands played an integral role in her decision to work at UC Santa Barbara.

“I was inspired by the agency and activism of students to ask for what they need and to use their voices and resources to get their needs met.  I would not have left LA … if it had not been for the opportunity to respond to the call of Black students who were feeling unsupported, underrepresented, and invisible,” Merchant said in an email.

Merchant, who grew up in Los Angeles but spent “15 summers in a row in Chicago where my parents were born,” said her parents moved to California to provide her with more opportunities than they believed she would have in Chicago.

“They instilled pride in being Black, demanded that I speak up for myself, and regularly told me that I could do anything that I put my mind to,” she said. 

Becoming a psychologist was a natural choice for Merchant, who said she has always been the person that friends confided in and looked to for advice.

“I chose to go to graduate school with the thought, ‘Everyone tells me their deepest darkest secrets and talks to be about anything, why not get paid to be me?’” she said. 

Merchant’s areas of focus are women’s health, academic success, overall student wellness and “empowering and supporting students who may feel marginalized and specifically students from the African Diaspora,” according to the C.A.P.S. website.

Source and Full article: The Daily Nexus