Editor’s Note: As part of Women’s History Month in March, UALR is profiling a few of its women faculty of distinction. This article is the first in a four-part series.

The 2015 Women’s History Month theme, “Weaving the Stories of Women’s Lives,” is an opportunity to mesh women’s stories – individually and collectively – into the fabric of the nation’s history.

And, the celebration of women’s history provides an ideal starting platform to recognize strong Arkansans such as Dr. LaVerne Bell-Tolliver, an associate professor at UALR’s School of Social Work.

Bell-Tolliver is in the process of familiarizing the community with the story of 25 students who desegregated Little Rock’s middle schools four years after the desegregation crisis at Central High School.

In 1961, Bell-Tolliver enrolled as the only black student at Forest Heights Junior High, now Forest Heights STEM Academy. Last fall, she set out to interview others who desegregated Little Rock middle schools.

She was encouraged to share her story after coming to UALR in 2006 and participating in the Chancellor’s Committee on Race and Ethnicity. Recently, she participated in a panel with other middle school desegregation pioneers shared their stories. The discussion was hosted by UALR at the Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site.

For her research, she has spoken with 17 of her student peers and gone over many school records. Bell-Tolliver is also planning to write a book based on her experience and that of the others who lived through desegregation in Little Rock.

She has been interviewed by several local media outlets, including SyncWeekly, which published a question-and-answer article about her experiences in February.

“As I continued to grow up, I wondered how the experience of desegregating junior high school affected my life, knowing that there were certain choices and certain situations that were definitely influenced by that,” she said in the article.

Bell-Tolliver has been a clinical social worker for over 40 years. She holds a master’s degree in social work from UALR and a Ph.D. in family therapy from Texas Woman’s University in Denton, Texas.

She served as a school-based therapist in the rural town of Elaine in Eastern Arkansas before accepting a position in the UALR School of Social Work.

Her research interests include exploring how the traditional strengths of African American families can be utilized within the context of the clinical setting to bring about successful therapy outcomes.