Students of Alliant: Jonathan Lassiter

By Gregory Desierto, Winter 2010

Diligent and determined. These may be the best words to describe Jonathan Lassiter. Jonathan is an exceptional gay African American G3 PhD student, a passionate researcher, an outstanding academician, and a strong advocate of both the African American and LGBT communities. Raised from a modest, working class family, Jonathan spent most of his life in Georgia.

As a child, Jonathan was ambitious in following academic pursuits but he had no academic role models within his family. Despite this challenge, his parents instilled Jonathan with the strong black person in white America work ethic: Work twice as hard to get half as far. With his perseverance, Jonathan became the first person in his immediate family to obtain a college degree and pursue a doctorate education.

As an undergraduate student at Georgia College and State University, Jonathan studied dance, psychology, and pre-medicine. He wanted to emulate his childhood TV role model, Dr. Doogie Howser, MD, and become a psychiatrist. But during Jonathan’s undergraduate years, seeds to a different dream were planted. Jonathan worked as a research assistant, and his passion for research blossomed. Mentors advised Jonathan to pursue a different path from his childhood dream, but a path that would quench his thirst for research and continue to help people with their mental well-being: A PhD in Clinical Psychology.

After completing his undergraduate studies, Jonathan took a year off, moved to New York, and worked for AmeriCorps. Thereafter, he embarked a new academic chapter of his life and matriculated to San Francisco Alliant. He chose San Francisco Alliant to experience San Francisco’s diverse cultures and gay affirming environment, to take advantage of Alliant’s focus on multiculturalism, to develop a strong clinical aptitude and valuable research skill set, and to collaborate with well-respected researchers from Alliant’s Rockway Institute.

Initially, Jonathan was disappointed with Alliant’s efforts in multiculturalism in his classes, which has been a long-standing controversy within the clinical program. However, Jonathan eventually realized that both Alliant’s student body and faculty are perhaps more diverse and Alliant’s attempts to implement multiculturalism are more impressive when compared to other clinical psychology programs. Particularly, Jonathan has been thankful for the opportunities to work with Drs Davis Ja and Robert-Jay Green, both of whom pushed Jonathan to become more proficient with his research endeavors.

Jonathan continues to face many challenges as a gay African American psychology trainee. For example, he wondered if his difficulties in the practicum matching process were associated with his skin color. Jonathan often speculated whether people question his intelligence and work ethic due to stereotypes of the African American community. But his academic record and his list of achievements will show that his intellectual prowess and diligence are not to be challenged. He advises other psychology trainees of color to “work hard, work really, really hard and make people see your hard efforts” and to try not to “take things too personally.”

Jonathan aspires to become a top-notch clinical psychology researcher. Before graduating, he plans to publish his manuscript on black men who have sex with men and how they reconcile both their religion and sexuality. In the future, he hopes to live in New York with his partner, continue his research interests, and publish articles about African Americans and the LGBT community, and write a number of books. Perhaps one day an article such as this one will no longer be necessary to introduce and verify Jonathan Lassiter’s achievements, but instead his mere name will speak volumes of respect that transcend the challenges he faces as a gay African American.