His Life and Legacy

Dr. Norman B. Anderson, PhD, trained as a clinical psychologist and had a wide-ranging career as a national leader, first as a scientist and tenured professor studying health disparities and mind/body health, and later as an executive in government, non-profit, and higher education sectors.

Anderson served last as Assistant Vice President for Research and Academic Affairs, and Professor of Social Work at Florida State University (FSU), a role he deeply loved, and the last he held before his passing. In those roles he worked with faculty and administrators to advance the research mission of the university and to facilitate the success of emerging academic leaders.

Dr. Anderson created and directed the FSU Faculty Leadership Program, which was designed to offer leadership training to faculty across the university in various stages of their professional journeys.

Before joining FSU, Dr. Anderson served for 13 years as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Executive Vice President of the American Psychological Association (APA), and was the second longest-servingand first African American CEO in the 125-year history of APA. AmongAPA’s numerous accomplishments during his tenure, the organization was named one of the top places to work in the Washington, DC area in2014. Dr. Anderson retired from APA in 2015.

Prior to joining APA, Dr. Anderson was the founding Associate Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in charge of social and behavioral science, and was the first Director of the NIH Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR). At NIH, he facilitated behavioral and social sciences research across all of the Institutes andCenters of the NIH.

In addition to his formal leadership roles, Dr. Anderson served as a tenured associate professor at Duke University and as a tenured professor at the Harvard School of Public Health. His research and writing on health and behavior, and on racial/ethnic and economic health disparities are well known.

For his research, service, and leadership, Dr. Anderson received a number of significant awards from scientific societies and universities. Among his numerous honors, in 2012 Anderson was elected to membership in the National Academy of Medicine of the National Academies of Science. In 2013, he was inducted into the National Black College Alumni Hall of Fame for his work in science. In collaboration with his former student, the late Dr. Rodney Clark (and others), Anderson developed one of the first bio-psycho-social models of racism as a stressor for African Americans, which was published in 1999 and was awarded the 2023 Scientific Impact Award from the Society of Experimental Social Psychology. Dr. Anderson received four honorary doctorate degrees.

He was elected to Fellow status in a number of organizations including the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Psychological Association, the Association for Psychological Science,the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research, and the Society of Behavioral Medicine.

He is a Past-President of the Society of Behavioral Medicine.In addition to publishing dozens of scientific articles, Dr. Anderson authored and edited several books, including serving as editor-in-chief ofthe two-volume Encyclopedia of Health and Behavior (2003) and as co-editor of Interdisciplinary Research: Case studies from Health and Social Science (2008). For over 12 years he was editor-in-chief of APA’sflagship journal, American Psychologist.

As a Certified Professional Coach, Dr. Anderson was Principal ofAnderson Leadership Coaching and Consulting, LLC which built on his decades of experience working with and developing senior executives and leaders in complex organizations. He focused on using evidenced-based leadership approaches and one-on-one coaching to help established and emerging leaders perform at their best. Dr. Andersonspecialized training in The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership®(also known as The Leadership Challenge), one of the most extensively evaluated approaches to leadership development. He was certified in theuse of the EQ-i 2.0 measure of emotional intelligence and was a Certified Mindfulness Teacher with training from the Mindful Awareness Research Center at the University of California at Los Angeles. Dr.Anderson led retreats and workshops for leaders and other groups on leadership practices, mindful leadership, emotional intelligence,character strengths, diversity and inclusion topics, and contemplativeprayer/meditation practices.

A graduate of North Carolina Central University in Durham, N.C., Anderson earned masters and doctoral degrees in clinical psychology from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He received additional clinical and research training at the schools of medicine atBrown and Duke Universities, including postdoctoral fellowships in psychophysiology and aging at Duke.