Adia "Dr. Dia" Winfrey '08 PhD School of Professional Psychology
Adia “Dr. Dia” Winfrey earned her Doctor of Psychology from Wright State University’s School of Professional Psychology in 2008. As a first-year doctoral student, she recognized the utility of integrating elements of hip-hop culture with psychology. Her dissertation, “Healing Young People thru Empowerment (H.Y.P.E.): A Hip-Hop Therapy Program for Black Adolescent Males,” was one of the first to positively showcase hip-hop culture.
As a pre-doctoral intern, Winfrey piloted the H.Y.P.E. curriculum for addressing emotional management, healthy relationships, and goal attainment through hip-hop and psychological theories. She developed an accompanying curriculum workbook and wrote H.Y.P.E.: Healing Young People thru Empowerment, published by African-American Images in 2009.
H.Y.P.E. has been implemented with youth through the Wisconsin Department of Juvenile Corrections, the City of Kissimmee, Florida, Parks and Recreation Department, several counties throughout the Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice, and countless therapy offices, classrooms, and community centers around the country. Winfrey has trained thousands of professionals and speaks nationally about the positive power of hip-hop.
Winfrey promotes the internationally renowned H.Y.P.E. curriculum through her company Elevating Us, LLC. Within the last year, she has been featured on NPR, in JET Magazine, and endorsed by nationally syndicated radio personalities Tom Joyner and Michael Baisden. In 2011, she founded The H.Y.P.E. Movement mentoring program for high school students in Stone Mountain, Georgia.
A graduate of Wilberforce University, Winfrey is currently developing the Let’s Get H.Y.P.E. Hip-Hop Empowerment college course and completing her second book, The H.Y.P.E. Life Pyramid, Teen Edition.
Sally Struthers '81 B.A. College of Liberal Arts
When Sally Struthers came to Wright State University in 1977, she had never even heard of the field of art history.
“I had no idea what I was going to major in,” Struthers recalled. That would all change when she enrolled in an art history course her first quarter.
“I knew then that I would go on to get my Ph.D. and teach art history in college,” Struthers said.
A faculty member at Sinclair Community College since 1987, Struthers currently serves as interim chair of the Academic Foundations Department. Her passion for the arts is something she hopes to pass along to her students.
“There’s a lot more to a class than just the facts,” she said. “I want to impart to them a love of learning and a love of other cultures—and a desire for them to find out more on their own.”
Struthers also encourages her students to travel. A first-generation college student, Struthers had limited travel experience when she enrolled at Wright State.
One of her first big excursions was the Department of Art and Art History’s trip to New York City.
“Going into the Met and the Museum of Modern Art was just life changing,” she recalled. “I really knew I wanted to be an art historian and work with cultural artifacts after that.”
Struthers’s love for photography was also born during her days at Wright State. Photography was a required course for art history majors, but Struthers was so intimidated that she waited until the final quarter of her senior year to take the course.
“I found out I really loved it and wished I would have taken it sooner,” she said. Photography has been a passion for Struthers ever since.
She has visited Italy five times and Greece twice. “Every time I go, I shoot hundreds of photographs,” said Struthers. “What I normally shoot are the temples that are related to Greek and Roman mythology, the architecture, and sometimes the sculpture. Nearly everything has some meaning or some myth behind it.”
Her work has been showcased in more than 30 exhibitions, including 13 solo shows.
Struthers’s lifelong fascination with ancient cultures was rewarded with the ultimate dream job—serving as a guest curator for the Dayton Art Institute’s exhibition, “The Roman World: Religions and Everyday Life,” in 2007.
“That was probably the highlight of my career,” Struthers said. Some of her photographs of ancient Rome were included in the exhibition.
Over the years, Struthers has maintained a strong connection to her alma mater.
“I’ve always sort of kept my foot over here, because I do love the place,” she said. “Wright State opened up a lot of doors for me.”