During the Fall of 1980, Drs. Na’im Akbar, Aubrey Perry, and Kobi Kambon (aka Joseph Baldwin) met to discuss the issues related to minority mental health in Leon and the surrounding counties of the North Florida-Panhandle Area. An outcome of that meeting was that the North Florida region of the State lacked a formal organization of Black psychologists and others interested in the mental health needs of the Black community. Thus, it was decided to address this need by forming a local affiliate of the National Association of Black Psychologists. It was through the initiative and untiring efforts of these three psychologists that the North Florida Chapter of the Association of Black Psychologists (NFABPSI) came into existence.

Dr. Kobi Kambon (aka Joseph Baldwin) as elected as the Second President of NFABPSI, Dr. Na’im Akbar was elected as the Third President, Dr. Yvonne Bell, the Fourth President, Dr. Anika Fields, the Fifth President (served back-to-back terms), Dr. Dallas Williams, the Sixth President, Dr. Raeford Brown, the Seventh President, Dr. Dana Dennard, the Eighth President, Dr. John Davis, the Ninth President, Dr. Seward E. Hamilton, the Tenth President, Dr. John Chambers, the Eleventh President (resigned shortly thereafter), Dr. Sharon Ames-Dennard, the Twelfth President, Dr. Anika Fields, the Thirteenth President, Dr. James G. Brown, the Fourteenth President (served back-to-back terms), Dr. Anika Fields, the Fifteenth President, Ms. Sandra King, the Sixteenth President, Dr. Yvonne Bell, the Seventeenth President, Dr. Merlin Langley, the Eighteenth President (served back-to-back terms), Dr. Huberta Jackson-Lowman, the Nineteenth President, and Dr. Anika Fields, (served back-to-back terms), and Dr. Jermaine Robertson sits as the Current President.

 

Although going through a most recent period of low activity in its output, the NFABPSI during its early history into the mid-1990s was a very active and productive organization in addressing the mental health needs of the Black community throughout the North Florida (Panhandle/Big Bend) region. It initiated the local observance of ABPSI’s Black Mental Health Month, The African Sherehe (an African-centered Banquet-dance-festival-cultural celebration and recognition of community leaders), Student (FAMU & FSU) Student Scholarship Awards, and various community information and education conferences and service programs on psychological testing/assessment in the school system, Drugs, Crime and Violence in the Black community, Black Males and Female Relationships, and many others. The Chapter also co-sponsored with the FAMU Psychology Department a variety of Black mental health and psycho-social issues programs and community service programs, etc. It also hosts an Annual Kwanzaa Celebration.

 

The organization continues to seek greater visibility and productivity in serving the North Florida Black community by expanding our membership and proving more of those services that will educate, enlighten and resolve the myriad of mental health problems characterizing our community. The Chapter looks forward to the coming year with great enthusiasm and an even greater determination to help promote the psychological liberation, positive development, and self-determination of Black people in North Florida, the entire State, the United States, and throughout the world. We invite all concerned members of our community for their support of our efforts in whatever ways that they can.