Dé Bryant, professor of psychology, was named the 22nd recipient of the Lundquist Faculty Fellowship at Indiana University South Bend. The announcement was made Friday (March 24, 2006) by Chancellor Una Mae Reck before the 21st Lundquist Lecture presentation by Professor Mike Keen.

“I’ve been attending the Lundquist lectures since I began. I wanted to see what my colleagues were doing. The range of their work is exciting. We have such talented and excellent researchers, and all are doing significant work. Now to know now that my body of work will be joining their work is gratifying and exciting. It puts a smile on my face,” Bryant said.

In addition to teaching and research, Bryant is director of the Social Action Project (SOCACT) at IU South Bend. SOCACT is a research project based in South Bend and Benton Harbor, Mich., with an outreach component in Durban, South Africa. The project uses social science research to understand and change real life problems.

SOCACT creates community development projects and the research teams examine problems faced by residents. The researchers study the role of culture in personal and community change. The results suggest that networks, not formal organizations, may be the most effective way to organize within certain types of communities.

Bryant and four students will be going to South Africa in June for a month. This will be the fourth trip for project members. Bryant explains that the group is making changes in the community “one person at a time” by empowering a few people and challenging them to help others.

Similar to the civil rights, labor and women’s movement, a “few people lead to change and then change the tide,” she said.

Bryant received her bachelor’s degree from University of Illinois, her master’s degree from Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada; and doctorate from Michigan State University. She joined the IU South Bend faculty in 1990 and became a full professor in 2004.

She has received numerous awards including the Faculty Colloquium on Excellence in Teaching (FACET) award in 1999 and the Thomas Ehrlich Service Award in 1998 for service learning.

Locally she has been active with the South Bend Heritage Foundation, VSA arts of Indiana advisory team, American Association of University Women, South Bend Branch; and the Center for Women’s Intercultural Leadership.

Bryant said she wanted to study psychology since she was a child. “I didn’t know what it was called.” But she remembers negotiating, talking and listening as a child.

She explained that she grew up in a military family and moved every year. “We were the only black family for miles. I was always the new kid and the shortest kid on the playground. Someone always wanted to fight me. I learned fast to negotiate, to form coalitions and to develop skills.”

The Lundquist Lecture was instituted in 1984 and named after Eldon Lundquist, one of Elkhart’s best known natives. He wore many hats – public relations, advertising, hospital development director, sportscaster and legislator. He was a member of the Indiana General Assembly from 1961 to 1976, where he served as the Senate Education Committee chairman for more than a decade.

In 1976, he was appointed assistant to the president of Indiana University with an office at IU South Bend. He served in that role until his death in 1977.

His friends established an endowment in his name to sponsor public lectures. In 1984, the Faculty Fellowship Program was established to support IU South Bend faculty members who demonstrate outstanding accomplishments in teaching, scholarship and research.

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