Described in Diverse Issues in Higher Education as “one of the most exciting scholars of his generation,” Dr. Yohuru Williams is the History Department Chair and the Director of Black Studies at Fairfield University in Fairfield, CT. He is also Chief Historian for the Jackie Robinson Foundation and Museum in New York, NY. He received his Ph.D. from Howard University in 1998. Dr. Williams is the author of Black Politics/White Power: Civil Rights, Black Power and the Black Panthers in New Haven (Blackwell, 2000) and Teaching U.S. History Beyond the Textbook: Six Investigative Strategies, Grades 5-12 (Corwin Press, 2008) and the editor of A Constant Struggle: African-American History, 1865-Present (Kendall Hunt, 2002). He is the co-editor of In Search of the Black Panther Party: New Perspectives on a Revolutionary Movement (Duke, 2006), and Liberated Territory: Untold Local Perspectives on the Black Panther Party (Duke, 2008). He also served as general editor for the Association for the Study of African American Life and History's 2002 and 2003 Black History Month publications The Color Line Revisited: Is Racism Dead? (Tapestry Press, 2002) and The Souls of Black Folks: Centennial Reflections (Africa World Press, 2003). Dr. Williams served as an advisor on the popular civil rights reader Putting the Movement Back into Teaching Civil Rights (Teaching for Change and PRRAC, 2004). Dr. Williams is presently completing a single-authored book, titled Six Degrees of Segregation: Lynching, Capital Punishment, and Jim Crow Justice, 1865-1930. Dr. Williams' scholarly articles have appeared in publications such as the American Bar Association’s Insights on Law and Society, the Organization of American Historians’ Magazine of History, the Pennsylvania Historical Association’s Pennsylvania History, and the Delaware Historical Society’s Delaware History, as well as in The Black Scholar, The Journal of Black Studies, and the Black History Bulletin. In addition to providing professional development for teachers, Dr. Williams regularly speaks to young people on a variety of topics, from American and African American History to character education. To date, he has conducted teaching seminars in 38 states and the District of Columbia, and has spoken to thousands of students, from California to Connecticut. Dr. Williams has made a variety of local and national media appearances, most notably on Al Jazeera America, Ebru TV, Fox Business, C-SPAN, and NPR. He is a regular political commentator on the Cliff Kelley Show on WVON, Chicago. Dr. Williams’ areas of media expertise include United States History, African American History, Education Policy, Civil Rights Law and Policy, Race and Criminal justice, and Politics. |
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Apryl Walker |
Skilled in community outreach, diversity enrichment, leadership development, community building, volunteer recruitment & commitment, event organizing, cultural literacy & awareness, political engagement, public policy advocacy, and fundraising & development, Apryl Walker is the State Campaign Director at Delaware Alliance for Community Advancement. Ms. Walker regularly provides fundamental-level, intermediate-level and leadership-level trainings that offer comprehensive peer counseling, community building, cultural literacy & awareness, leadership development, and diversity enrichment tools for professionals, community leaders, parents, and student leaders. Ms. Walker has also led workshops on these skills throughout the United States, as well as in Kenya and South Africa. She has provided numerous workshops at national and international conferences, including the White Privilege Conference, United States Social Forum, and Gandhi-King Conference on Peacemaking. Ms. Walker consults a variety of organizations on the development and implementation of fundraising & development programs, community outreach projects, political engagement strategies, public policy advocacy programs, volunteer recruitment & commitment procedures, and local, regional & national events. She has worked with social service organizations, coalitions, advocacy groups, government agencies, museums, public schools, private schools, churches, political campaigns, community organizations, labor unions, for-profit businesses, foundations, and universities. |
Melissa Cooper, PhD |
Dr. Cooper is an assistant professor at the Institute for Southern Studies University of South Carolina
Columbia, SC Here are some of her accomplishments |