Temilola Salami, Ph.D.
PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas (Jan. 18, 2023) – As an undergraduate psychology major at Canada’s prestigious McGill University, Temilola Salami, Ph.D., discovered the best way for her to study was by turning her lecture notes and class materials into presentations. She would consolidate everything into slides and deliver lectures to invisible audiences in her parent’s living room, dining room or kitchen. The practice made her a better student and helped launch her career speaking as a licensed clinical psychologist at conferences and workshops around the country. It also helped her create the inclusive educational experience she’s now using to train the next generation of mental health professionals as an associate professor of psychology at Prairie View A&M University.
“Teaching has always been a part of me, at least since undergrad, when I could stand on an imaginary stage and offer my lectures to an invisible audience,” she said. The technique honed her presentation and teaching skills without her even realizing it. “It also helped me discover my unique learning style, which helps me appreciate that students are all different, with each learning in their own way. Thus, in whatever course I teach, I tailor it to the specific needs of the students, emphasizing the significance of recognizing one’s learning style.”
Since joining the Department of Psychology in the Marvin D. and June Samuel Brailsford College of Arts and Sciences in 2022, Dr. Salami has developed and deployed distinctive learning strategies in her graduate- and undergraduate-level courses, including lecture recaps at the beginning of each class that helps students review and consolidate knowledge, and a Jeopardy-style quiz game for those who thrive on competition. She also works with students one-on-one to help them figure out the right strategies for them.
“I enjoy witnessing lightbulb moments when students connect concepts and learn new things,” she said.
Shedding the one-size-fits-all approach to education puts Salami at the forefront of the current movement to make policies around diversity, equity and inclusion more robust, more dynamic, and more generative in institutions across the country. In academia specifically, researchers have noted that students may be more likely to prosper academically in settings with more collaborative modes of learning that acknowledge students’ personal experiences.
For Salami, giving students the space to pursue their own learning paths makes the educational experience more exciting and conducive to more class participation. It also acknowledges that there is more than one way to solve a problem or reach a destination, which sets the stage for a wider, more diverse set of ideas and solutions to be brought to the table in any given field. With marginalized and underrepresented populations often experiencing a multitude of inequities around care and education, the mental health field needs practitioners who can bring diverse perspectives, experiences and ideas to help solve them.
“I usually highlight to my students that, in addition to learning particular course material, my objective is to help them develop critical thinking skills and become effective problem solvers,” she said. “The ability to think outside the box and flexibly enables students to find solutions and answer questions they had not realized they had.”
It also “helps prepare PVAMU students to better serve the communities in which they work,” she said.
Such outside-the-box thinking has given Salami a long and versatile resume. She has held assistant professor positions at Baylor College of Medicine and Sam Houston State University; helped develop frameworks for addressing the medical, psychological, and social service needs of survivors of severe interpersonal trauma for the State of Texas; published several peer-reviewed articles in scientific journals; and delivered presentations and led workshops at prestigious symposia across the country. But she also shows her students that embracing the unique ways they learn, think and solve problems can impact their psyches and other areas of their lives.
“Not long ago, I had a conversation with one such student who had brought me to tears after being accepted into a Ph.D. program in clinical psychology,” she said. “This experience was emotional because I had mentored this student as an undergraduate and master’s level student, and she often doubted her capabilities. Seeing my students surpass their expectations in learning and achieving their goals only motivates me to want to do more to continue to promote success in each of my students.”
Salami knows that making such investments in her students’ personal and professional well-being is made possible by the institutional backing and collaborative support she and her colleagues receive from the leadership, staff and administrators at PVAMU. As an educator who supports the needs of Black and first-generation college students specifically, being in an environment where your peers are just as immersed in and dedicated to the work as you are is invaluable.
“I was greatly impressed by President Ruth Simmons and her aspiration to make PVAMU one of the leading institutions for providing higher education to historically underrepresented students,” Salami said about her decision to join the faculty. “PVAMU’s Carnegie classification at the time was R3, and I was aware of the effort to elevate PVAMU’s Carnegie classification from an R3 to an R2. I consider myself fortunate to have witnessed Ruth Simmons’s leadership and PVAMU’s R2 designation.”
By Jada F. Smith
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