I’m committed to engaged and applied learning. Community immersed teaching, applied research, and outreach has enabled me to promote co-constructed learning and impactful education that fosters local, national, and global transformation.

Deval Patrick Endowed Chair

• Deval Laurdine Patrick is an American politician, author, businessman, and former civil rights lawyer who served as the 71st governor of Massachusetts from 2007 to 2015. He was the first African American Governor of Massachusetts. In January 2022, Patrick became the co-director of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Center for Public leadership and a professor of the practice of public leadership at the school.
• The Deval Patrick Endowed Chair in Social, Political and Economic Innovation at UMass Boston was founded in 2015 to recognize and continue Governor Deval Patrick’s legacy of innovation and support of higher education in Boston and throughout the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the Nation, and the World. The Chair recognizes outstanding scholarly leaders who engage in cutting edge scholarship that addresses critical social, political, and economic inequities. The recipient of the Chair will use the annual distribution for any activities which support the Chair, including but not limited to interdisciplinary research, and special community outreach projects that address cortical social and economic inequities that affect the quality of life in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the region, the nation, and the world.
• The endowed chair will administer the Deval Patrick endowment to support the chair, McCormack School faculty, and doctoral student research, outreach, and engagement that contributes to the school public service and public affairs mission.

Other Engagement and Outreach Programs @ UMass Boston

• Africa Scholars Forum @ UMass Boston (Founding Chair)
• McCormack Speaks @ WUMB Radio Podcast (Host)
• Robert C. Wood Visiting Professor of Urban and Public Affairs Committee (Chair)
• McCormack Scholars Group (Faculty Advisor)
• Civic Action Program (CAP) @ the John W McCormack School (Chair)

External Service (Local, National, and Global)

• A Better City (ABC) Executive Board Member
• African Studies Association (ASA): Board Member, 2021-2024
• West African Research Association (WARA): Board Secretary, 2020-Present
• International Studies Association (ISA)
• American Political Science Association (APSA)
• Development Studies Association (DSA)
• University Leadership Council on Diversity and Inclusion in International Affairs and Public Policy Education
• Association of Global South Studies (ATWS)
• Association of Concerned African Scholars (ACAS)
• National Council of Black Political Scientists (NCOBS)
• Association of the Study of the Worldwide African Diaspora (ASWAD)