🎓 Congrats, Doctor!

At seven years old, Dorothy Jean Tillman was completing high school-level work. 

She started taking college courses at ten; she earned her master's at fifteen.

Most recently, Dorothy defended her dissertation to earn a doctoral degree in integrated behavioral health from ASU's College of Health Solutions, officially becoming Dr. Dorothy Jean Tillman at seventeen years old. 

Backstory: Dorothy always loved school, challenging herself more and more with each degree out of a true love for learning. 

• "People in my life like my grandmother, who was part of the Civil Rights movement, she of course harped on the importance of education and consistently learning something always," Dorothy said. "But the way I always held education so high on my own, aside from being raised that way, was finding different things to be educated about."
• For her dissertation, she explored the stigma that prevents university students from getting mental health treatment. The teen's mission is to positively impact young people when it comes to their mental health.

On top of her studies, Dorothy also devotes time to running the Dorothy Jeanius STEAM Leadership Institute, which inspires hundreds of underserved young people in Chicago, as well as abroad in countries like Ghana and South Africa, to pursue STEAM careers.

⭐️ Bottom line: According to Dr. Lesley Manson, a clinical associate professor at ASU, Tillman is the youngest person in school history to earn a doctoral degree in integrated behavioral health.