Morgan State University Newsroom Morgan State University
Lakeisha M. Mixon, a second-year student in Morgan State University’s Master of Social Work program, has been selected as a 2017 HBCU All-Star by the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities. The annual honor recognizes undergraduate, graduate and professional students for their accomplishments in academics, leadership and civic engagement. Over the course of the year, the 61 HBCU All-Stars will serve as ambassadors of the Initiative by providing outreach and communication with their fellow students about the value of education and the role of the Initiative as a networking resource. Through social media and their relationships with community-based organizations, the All-Stars will share promising and proven practices that support opportunities for all young people to achieve their educational and career potential. In 2016, Morgan doctoral student Paris Adkins-Jackson earned the honor and was selected as an HBCU All-Star.
Mixon’s accomplishments clearly made her a top candidate among the 453 applicants for the HBCU All-Star honor. After moving to Baltimore, Md., from New York City as a teen, she earned two associate’s degrees from community college then a Bachelor of Science in psychology from Morgan. Her passion about mental health in the African-American community has led her to conduct extensive research on childhood victimization and its impact on help-seeking behaviors, resiliency and psychological distress. She is the founding president of the Association of Black Social Workers and the co-lead for the Student Council of Morgan’s Graduate Student Association. She is also a research assistant for a study on the relationship between trauma and substance abuse for the MSU ASCEND Center for Biomedical Research and an intern in the Acute Psychiatric Unit at the Baltimore VA Medical Center, where she serves as the mental health lead. In addition, she is an intervention coordinator for The REACH! Partnership School in Baltimore.
Mixon’s master’s degree program concentration is in urban children, youth and families. She plans to pursue her doctorate in clinical psychology while working to change the rhetoric on mental illness in the African-American community.
Congratulations to Lakeisha M. Mixon for advancing the mission of Morgan and HBCUs nationwide!
