Bobby William Austin | |
---|---|
Born | Bowling Green, Kentucky, U.S. | December 29, 1944
Education | Western Kentucky University (BA) Fisk University (MA) McMaster University (PhD) Harvard Graduate School of Education Central Michigan University (Honorary doctorate) |
Occupations |
|
Spouse | Joy Ford Austin |
Children | Ariana Austin Makonnen |
Bobby William Austin (born December 29, 1944) is an American sociologist, lecturer, and writer. He is a leading scholar on African-American men and boys and was the first person, as a Program Officer with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, to fund major philanthropic initiatives for African-American men and boys. [1] Over the past 30 years, in the fields of education, social policy, youth development, cultural theory, philanthropy and religion, he has created a series of structured venues as pathways for how citizens might live life in communities as individuals and as members of groups where peace, meaning, and innovation are nurtured. [2] [3] He is currently President of the Neighborhood Associates Corporation and managing director of the EducationThinkTank.
Austin was born in Bowling Green, Kentucky in 1944. He received his B.A. from Western Kentucky University in sociology and economics. He went on to earn an M.A. in sociology at Fisk University and then his Ph. D. from McMaster University in Canada. He began his career as the first African-American full-time academic faculty at Georgetown University. He received a diploma from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and an Honorary Doctorate for Public Service from Central Michigan University. He is Mahatma Gandhi Fellow of the American Academy of Political and Social Science.
Austin is married to Joy Ford, daughter of John Meredith Ford who was Lord Mayor of Georgetown, Guyana. They have a daughter, Ariana Austin, who married Prince Joel Dawit Makonnen of Ethiopia in 2017. [4]
Austin served as a campaign speech writer and issues director in the mayoral campaign of Patricia Roberts Harris, as well as for Washington, D.C. mayor, Sharon Pratt. He went on to serve in various capacities at the University of the District of Columbia including Special Assistant to the Board of Trustees, Ronald H. Brown; and Special Assistant for Educational Licensure for the District of Columbia. Austin was also the founding editor of the Urban League Review, the National research and policy journal of the National Urban League. From 1990 to 1997 he was a Program Officer at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. His roles included Director of the African American Men and Boys Initiative and assistant director of the Kellogg National Fellowship Program. As executive director of the National Task Force on African American Men and Boys he edited the groundbreaking report Repairing the Breach: Key Ways to Support Family Life, Reclaim Our Streets, and Rebuild Civil Society in America's Communities. In the study distinguished African-American leaders provide solutions to the problems faced by young black men in the U.S., based on findings by a task force assembled in 1994 by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation. Chaired by Andrew Young, the Task Force founded its carefully researched recommendations largely on grassroots programs around the country which have been successful in rebuilding lives and communities. William Raspberry, Washington Post columnist called the strategies outlined in the book, "the plan to save America."
In 1997, Austin founded the Village Foundation, an organization dedicated to "repairing the breach" between African-American males and the rest of society. Its mission was to engage African-American young men and boys in American society, by reconnecting them first to their local communities and then to the larger society. [5] One of the leading initiatives of the Village Foundation was the "Give a Boy a Book Day campaign." The program was designed to encourage reading and literacy among young African-American men. An expert on leadership, in his article, "Twenty-First Century Leadership in the African-American Community" Austin predicted a "new and emerging leadership class" and the shift from a few national leaders to a "greater emphasis on local and regional leaders from the affected communities." [6]
Austin is the former Chairman of the Planning Committee on the Status of African American Men, convened by Congressman Danny Davis. He is also a founding fellow of the National Endowment for the Public Trust and Director of its Justice Task Force. Austin is a founder of the People's program, convener of the civic league and its signature program "Citizens Diplomats." Austin served as a board member for the National Housing Trust, the Council for the Advancement of Adult Literacy, and currently serves on the World Policy Council of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. He was operational chair of the Centennial Family Symposium (2006), Alpha Phi Alpha, Inc; chairman, The Year of the African-American Male; Co-Convener of the Secretariat for African American Civil Society Leaders.[ citation needed ]
In April 2014 his work was honored at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. The Harvard University Graduate School of Education's Dean's Advisory Committee on Equity and Diversity and the Morehouse Research Institute hosted a conference reflecting on 20 years since the groundbreaking report by the National Task Force on African-American men and boys; "Repairing the Breach: Key Ways to Support Family Life, Reclaim Our Streets and Rebuild Civil Society in America's Communities." The conference honored Austin as the architect of the initiative and editor of the report. Luminaries and practitioners alike walked participants through the philosophical roots of the initiative, the future of developing grassroots leadership for African-American young men and their families, and explored the current groundswell of interest in African-American men among the philanthropic community. [7]
Austin is listed as one of the 50 African-Americans who forever changed academia. [8]
Louis Wade Sullivan is an active health policy leader, minority health advocate, author, physician, and educator. He served as the Secretary of the United States Department of Health and Human Services during President George H. W. Bush's Administration and was Founding Dean of the Morehouse School of Medicine.
Roxanne Qualls is an American politician who served as the 66th mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio. She also served a two-year term on the Cincinnati City Council prior to her service as mayor, having been elected in 1993. On August 8, 2007, the Charter Committee announced her appointment to fill the unexpired term of council member Jim Tarbell. Qualls was elected to a two-year term on Cincinnati City Council in November 2007, and again in 2009 and 2011. She served as Vice Mayor, the chair of the Budget and Finance Committee, chair of the Livable Communities Committee and chair of the Subcommittee on Major Transportation and Infrastructure Projects.
Whitney Moore Young Jr. was an American civil rights leader. Trained as a social worker, he spent most of his career working to end employment discrimination in the United States and turning the National Urban League from a relatively passive civil rights organization into one that aggressively worked for equitable access to socioeconomic opportunity for the historically disenfranchised. Young was influential in the United States federal government's War on Poverty in the 1960s.
Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. (ΑΦΑ) is the oldest intercollegiate historically African American fraternity. It was initially a literary and social studies club organized in the 1905–1906 school year at Cornell University but later evolved into a fraternity with a founding date of December 4, 1906. It employs an icon from Ancient Egypt, the Great Sphinx of Giza, as its symbol. Its aims or pillars are "Manly Deeds, Scholarship, and Love For All Mankind," and its motto is "First of All, Servants of All, We Shall Transcend All." Its archives are preserved at the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center.
José Manuel Santana Silvestre, is a Dominican economist, specialist in Technology and Development. He is the executive director of the Dominican Republic International Commission of Science & Technology with the rank of ambassador. He is also a Research Affiliate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy.
The Wesley United Methodist Church in Austin, Texas, United States, was founded in 1865, at the end of the American Civil War. Its original members were Austin-area freedmen, and it remains a predominantly African-American congregation. On March 4, 1865, the Reverend Joseph Welch, presiding elder of the Texas District of the Mississippi Mission Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, presided over the meeting at which Wesley was founded. This historical meeting was held in the basement of the old Tenth Street M. E. Church, South in Austin, Texas.
Bienvenido Florendo Nebres,S.J. is a Filipino scientist, mathematician, and a Jesuit priest who was the longest-serving university president of the Ateneo de Manila University. He succeeded Joaquin G. Bernas in 1993 and served as University President until 1 June 2011. He currently sits as a member of the board of trustees of Georgetown University, Regis University, St. Edward School Foundation, Inc., the Asian Institute of Management, and other colleges and universities in the Philippines. He is also a member of the board of directors of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company, and is currently chairman of the Synergeia Foundation. He was also Provincial Superior of the Society of Jesus in the Philippines.
Thomas Sidney Axworthy, is a Canadian civil servant, political strategist, writer and professor. He is best known for having served as Principal Secretary and Chief Speechwriter to Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. Axworthy is currently the Secretary General of the InterAction Council. Previously, he was president and CEO of the Walter and Duncan Gordan Foundation. He is a senior fellow at the Munk School of Global Affairs, Massey College, and the Bill Graham Centre of Contemporary International History, Trinity College, at the University of Toronto.
The World Policy Council of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity is a nonprofit and nonpartisan think tank established in 1996 at Howard University to expand the fraternity's involvement in politics and social and current policy to encompass important global and world issues. They describe their mission as to "address issues of concern to our brotherhood, our communities, our Nation, and the world."
Jackson T. Katz is an American educator, filmmaker, and author. He has created a gender violence prevention and education program entitled 'Mentors in Violence Prevention', which is used by U.S. military and various sporting organizations.
Charles Vernon Bush was an American civil rights activist, retired senior corporate executive and former U.S. Air Force officer. In 1954, at the urging of Chief Justice Earl Warren, who had asked for the appointment of an African-American page of the Supreme Court of the United States, Bush was selected as the first one by the court's marshal, T. Perry Lippitt. He was also one of the first three African-American Cadets to attend the U.S. Air Force Academy and the first African American to graduate from there.
Robert "Rob" L. Gordon III is a cross-sector leader in the government, military, academic, nonprofit and high tech sectors. Gordon was appointed the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Military Community and Family Policy on July 19, 2010, serving under U.S. President Barack Obama. In the Defense Department he was responsible for defense-wide policy, program execution and oversight of global community support programs to care for, support, and empower 2 million Service members, 1.2 million military spouses, 2 million children, and over 2 million military families worldwide. He oversaw the Department of Defense school system (DoDEA) that at that time served approximately 90,000 students in 194 schools in 14 districts located in 12 foreign countries, seven states, Guam, and Puerto Rico. He oversaw voluntary education for over half a million active duty military service members; defense resale for over 500 commissaries and exchanges; military spouse education and career advancement for 1.2 million military spouses; child development and youth activities programs; state liaison initiatives; family assistance and non-medical counseling services; and collaborated with Congressional leaders, White House leaders, business and non profit sectors, chambers of commerce, academic communities, and a multitude of federal and state agencies to strengthen the resilience and well-being of the military community.
August "Gus" Schumacher, Jr. (1939–2017) was an American economist and agricultural policy official. He was Vice-President of Policy at the Wholesome Wave Foundation in Bridgeport, Connecticut. He was also a member of the 21st Century Sustainable Agricultural Task Force of the National Academy of Sciences.
Frances Hesselbein was an American businesswoman and writer. She served as the CEO of the Girl Scouts of the USA, from 1976 to 1990, and the president and CEO of the Frances Hesselbein Leadership Forum, at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public and International Affairs (GSPIA), Johnson Institute for Responsible Leadership.
The David Bohnett Foundation is a private foundation that gives grants to organizations that focus on its core giving areas – primarily Los Angeles area programs and LGBT rights in the United States, as well as leadership initiatives and voter education, gun violence prevention, and animal language research. It was founded by David Bohnett in 1999. As of 2022, the foundation has donated $125 million to nonprofit organizations and initiatives.
John Silvanus Wilson, Jr. is an American academic administrator who served as the 11th president of Morehouse College from 2013 to 2017. Before returning to lead his alma mater in 2013, Wilson served in the United States Department of Education, at George Washington University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Girls for Gender Equity (GGE) is a Brooklyn, New York-based intergenerational nonprofit organization founded with a Black feminist lens. It is dedicated to strengthening local communities by creating opportunities for young women and girls to live self-determined lives. To achieve this, GGE employs a bio-psycho-social-cultural approach to addressing the many challenges young women and girls face, including sexism, racial inequality, homophobia, transphobia, and sexual harassment.
Senait Fisseha is an Ethiopian-American physician, lawyer and obstetrician-gynecologist. She specialized in endocrinology at the University of Michigan and received her Juris Doctor from Southern Illinois University. She is currently Vice-President of International Programs at the Susan Thompson Buffet Foundation. She became an advocate for global equity, working with African leaders and institutions during the Covid-19 pandemic. She also chaired the election campaign and transition of Tedros Adhanom, the first African Director General of the World Health Organization, in 2016-17.
Joy Ford Austin is a Guyanese-American non-profit executive, philanthropist, humanitarian, and arts patron. She was the director of the African American Museums Association, which she helped found in 1980, and worked with institutions to preserve African-American culture and history. From 2000 to 2020, Austin served as the executive director of Humanities DC, an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Since stepping down as executive director of Humanities DC, she has served as the president of AustinFord Associates and as the chief executive officer of Joy Ford Austin Arts and Humanities Advocacy.