Brendesha Tynes
Title: Assistant professor of African-American studies and educational psychology, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Education: Ph.D., psychological studies in education, University of California, Los Angeles; M.A., education and social policy-learning sciences, Northwestern University; B.A., history, Columbia University
Age: 38 Career mentors: Patricia Greenfield (UCLA), Yasmin Kafai (UCLA), Claudia Mitchell Kernan (UCLA), Belinda Tucker (UCLA), and Helen Neville (UIUC)
Words to live by: “One phrase I always say is, ‘Let them tell you no.’ By that I mean don’t do things to disqualify yourself, but in everything you do, give your all. You may face rejection and naysayers, but that voice that says ‘no’ should not be inside of you.”
Dr. Brendesha Tynes, like most scholars, was always a good student — vice president of her high school senior class, president of the National Honor Society, editor in chief of the yearbook. Yet despite her academic and extra-curricular achievements, she had professional aspirations that weren’t exactly what her parents and teachers had in mind.
“All I did was dream about becoming a model,” says the Detroit native. So with $80 in her pocket, she moved to New York, leaving Michigan State University after her first quarter. She got a few modeling assignments; however, during one casting call she got a harsh reality check.
“The person who was doing the hiring looked at me and said, ‘Oh, we’re not hiring Black girls this season,'” recalls Tynes.
