Dr. Bettye Collier-Thomas is a Professor in the History Department, and Director of the Temple University-Center for African American History and Culture. Prior to this appointment she was the founding Executive Director of the Bethune Museum-Archives Inc., National Historic Site (1977-1989), which recently was incorporated into the National Park System. In this position she developed the nation's first museum and archives for Black women's history. From 1966 to 1976 she served as a professor and administrator at Howard University and held faculty positions at Washington Technical Institute (UDC) and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. From 1977 to 1981 she was Special Consultant to the National Endowment for the Humanities, developing the agency's first program of technical assistance to black museums and historical organizations.

 Dr. Collier-Thomas has been the recipient of many awards, honors and recognition.  In November 1994 she received the Conservation Service Award, one of the highest awards to be given a civilian by the Department of the Interior. This award recognized her singular achievement in the creation and development of the Bethune Museum and Archives. In 1985 President Reagan appointed her to the National Afro-American History and Culture commission. She is cited in The Directory of American Scholars, Who’s Who in Black America, Who’s Who in American Colleges and Universities, and has received scholarships, fellowships and major grants from the Ford Foundation, Lilly Endowment, Rockefeller Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities. She was featured in the 1986 special issue of Dollars and Sense as one of "America’s Top 100 Black Business and Professional Women."

 An outstanding nationally known scholar, Dr. Collier-Thomas is currently directing research and will write the first comprehensive history of "African American Women and the Church 1780-1970.” This momentous undertaking, one of four major national religious documentary projects, is funded by the Lilly Endowment.

 Dr. Collier-Thomas' current publications include Sisters in the Struggle: African-American Women in the Civil Rights-Black Power Movement,  My Soul Is a Witness: A Chronology of the Civil Rights Era 1954-1965, Daughters of Thunder: Black Women Preachers and Their Sermons, 1850-1979 and A Treasury of African American Christmas Stories.

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