Emeritus Dean and professor Harold Cheatham receives two honors from international student affairs association

An international student affairs association honored Clemson University emeritus Dean and professor Harold Cheatham by renaming a major award in his honor and presenting him with its Lifetime Achievement Award.

The American College Personnel Association (ACPA)-College Student Educators International announced its Innovative Practice Award is now named the Harold E. Cheatham Innovative Practice Award, which recognizes the outstanding work of a campus practitioner who is innovative in their approach and has made a significant impact on student communities on their campus.

“The award honors practitioners who are making a difference at the local level and are successfully trying and assessing new and creative approaches to our work, qualities that Dr. Cheatham exemplifies today and throughout his career of distinction,” the association stated in its announcement.

Cheatham, a professor of counseling and education leadership, became the first African American academic dean in Clemson University history when he was named founding dean of the University’s College of Health, Education, and Human Development. He served in this post from 1996 until retiring in 2001.

A 1990-91 Senior Fulbright Scholar to India, Cheatham is a distinguished member of the National Society of Collegiate Scholars, the Skull and Bones Society, Sigma Pi Phi and Alpha Phi Alpha fraternities. Cheatham is also a life member of Phi Kappa Phi and the Fulbright Scholars Association. He was named a Fellow of Clemson’s Emeritus College last year.

Cheatham received a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology from Penn State in 1961, a Master of Arts from Colgate University in 1969 and the Doctor of Philosophy degree from Case Western Reserve University in 1973.

He was director of University Counseling at Case Western, professor of psychology at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, professor and head of the department of counselor education and counseling psychology at Penn State.

Cheatham served as education leader and as a student of mental health service delivery in the Soviet Union and China, and as medical missionary to Zambia, Ghana, Vietnam and Haiti. He served on the editorial boards of the Career Development Quarterly, Western Journal of Black Studies, Journal of Black Psychology, Journal of College Student Development and as editor of the ACPA Media Board.

Cheatham was the 56^th president of ACPA in 1995-1996 and was a founding member of the Hartzog Institute for National Parks.