Even in childhood, Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot was a good listener. "My mother used to call em 'the analyst's analyst,'" she says--high praise from the distinguished Harlem psychiatrist and the subject of Lawrence-Lightfoot's 1989 award-winning book, Balm in Gilead.
The inspirational biography has been recognized as the first of a new literary genre--one the author terms "human archeology." Lawrence-Lightfoot's later work further blends her training as a sociologist with her exceptional gifts as a storyteller. I've Known Rivers: Lives of Loss and Liberation, a sensitive portrayal of six African American professionals, speaks to universal concerns of mid-life.
Dr. Lawrence-Lightfoot currently teaches in the department of education at Harvard University and is the author of several scholarly examinations of the American educational system. Regarded as one of Harvard's "leading lights" and "a dazzling lecturer," she is the second African American woman in the history of the university to be granted tenure.
