OBI University

OBI University
Explore our new courses on targeted universalism!
Learn to build a world where
everyone
belongs.
Take free classes with the Othering & Belonging Institute (OBI) at UC Berkeley. We help changemakers build more vibrant, just and inclusive communities and structures.
Together at OBI University, we’ll learn about structural marginalization, the processes of othering, and the building blocks of belonging, so we can co-create a world where all are included in our circle of care and concern.
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Leap into
OBI University
now!
Across the planet, people are looking for effective ways to build just, equitable and inclusive institutions that serve and support everyone. Even more challenging, we’re looking for ways to do so without fueling the growing fragmentation that is separating us from each other and our sense of humanity.
Under the leadership of legal scholar john a. powell, OBI has created a distinct belonging framework that is a set of values, practices, principles and tools that can help you root out structural inequality and exclusion of all kinds while helping all of us turn towards, rather than against each other. Beyond a call for inclusion into pre-existing structures built to serve only some of us, belonging asks each of us to commit to co-creating new structures built for everyone.
Othering
Exclusion
Bridging
Belonging
Equity
Inclusion
Marginality
What is
OBI University?
Our online university is a free hub of learning and community for people committed to building a more vibrant, just, equitable and inclusive world.
Courses are built on
the Othering & Belonging framework.
Expert instructors guide you through a transformative learning experience, providing the tools and resources you need to turn your passion for social justice into action. Programs are designed to be accessible and flexible, so you can learn at your own pace and fit education into your busy life.
When you enroll at OBI University, you become part of a vibrant community of learners committed to co-creation. This is a place to connect, share ideas and resources, and find inspiration as you work to make a difference.
Learn foundational knowledge for
bridging
belonging
Videos
Watch interactive videos guided by experts
Community
Engage in dialogue with a community of bridgers
Journals
Reflect on your learning through writing exercises
Certificates
Track your learning journey and share your successes
Explore free courses featuring renowned
thinkers
doers
john a. powell
Judith Butler
bell hooks
Bayo Akomolafe
Joy Harjo
Winona LaDuke
Alok Vaid-Menon
...
and many more
Who should enroll in OBI University?
Anyone! We strongly believe that everyone can benefit from the Othering & Belonging framework — artists, educators, policymakers, activists, administrators, DEI professionals, businesses, parents, students, and beyond.
Courses are all free, so if you’re curious you can dip your toes before you decide to dive in.
Is OBI University really free?
Yes, our learning platform is and always will be free!
What subjects do you cover?
At launch, we offer courses on the fundamentals concepts of Othering & Belonging. We are quickly preparing courses on structural racism and foundations of the practice of bridging — stay tuned for more. All of our courses span from conceptual to practical, structural to cultural, and more.
Click here to view our course page.
Once there, you can click on each class to see an overview of the material covered. We are working to expand our course library;
sign up for our newsletter
to keep up-to-date.
How do I get started with OBI University?
It’s as simple as hitting the register button below. If you’d like more instructions,
click here to access our “How To” page
to learn more.
Want to
learn more?
Ready to start?
The Othering & Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley brings together researchers, organizers, stakeholders, communicators, and policymakers to identify and eliminate the barriers to an inclusive, just, and sustainable society in order to create transformative change.
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Othering & Belonging Institute
Bayo Akomolafe (Ph.D.)
, rooted with the Yoruba people in a more-than-human world, is the father to Alethea and Kyah, the grateful life-partner to Ije, son and brother. A widely celebrated international speaker, posthumanist thinker, poet, teacher, public intellectual, essayist, and author of two books,
These Wilds Beyond our Fences: Letters to My Daughter on Humanity’s Search for Home
and
We Will Tell our Own Story: The Lions of Africa Speak
Bayo Akomolafe is the Founder of The Emergence Network and host of the online postactivist course, ‘We Will Dance with Mountains’. He currently lectures at Pacifica Graduate Institute, California and University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont. He sits on the Board of many organizations including Science and Non-Duality (US) and Local Futures (Australia).
In July 2022, Dr. Akomolafe was appointed the inaugural
Global Senior Fellow
of University of California’s (Berkeley) Othering and Belonging Institute, where he acts as the Forum’s “provocateur in residence”, guiding Forum members in rethinking and reimagining our collective work towards justice in ways that reject binary thinking and easy answers. He has also been appointed Senior Fellow for The New Institute in Hamburg, Germany.
Read
his introduction penned for the Democracy & Belonging Forum here
. To learn more about his work, visit
Bayo's website at her
, and
view the work of the Emergence Network here
Bayo
Akomolafe
Bayo appears in
Bridging 2:
The Risk & Possibility of Bridging Panel
ALOK
(they/them) is a gender non-conforming writer and performance artist who was recently featured in HuffPo's “Culture Shifters '21” List.
Their distinctive style and poetic challenge to the gender binary has been internationally renowned. As a mixed-media artist ALOK uses poetry, prose, comedy, performance, design, and portraiture to explore themes of eugenics, trauma, belonging, and the human condition. They are the author of “Femme in Public” (2017) and “Beyond the Gender Binary” (2020). In 2019, they were honored as one of NBC’s “Pride 50” and Out Magazine’s “OUT 100.” They are currently an artist in residence at the Annette von Droste zu Hülshoff-Stiftung Foundation Center for Literature.
Find them on
and at
their website
ALOK
Akaya appears in
Bridging 2:
Risk and Possibility of Bridging
bell hooks
was an American scholar and activist whose work examined the connections between race, gender, and class. She often explored the varied perceptions of Black women and Black women writers and the development of feminist identities.
hooks grew up in a segregated community of the American South. At age 19 she began writing what would become her first full-length book,
Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism
, which was published in 1981. She studied English literature at Stanford University (B.A., 1973), the University of Wisconsin (M.A., 1976), and the University of California, Santa Cruz (Ph.D., 1983).
hooks assumed her pseudonym, the name of her great-grandmother, to honor female legacies; she preferred to spell it in all lowercase letters to focus attention on her message rather than herself. She taught English and ethnic studies at the University of Southern California from the mid-1970s, African and Afro-American studies at Yale University during the ’80s, women’s studies at Oberlin College and English at the City College of New York during the 1990s and early 2000s. In 2004 she became a professor in residence at Berea College in Berea, Kentucky. The bell hooks Institute was founded at the college in 2014.
In the 1980s hooks established a support group for Black women called the Sisters of the Yam, which she later used as the title of a book, published in 1993, celebrating Black sisterhood. Her other writings included
Feminist Theory from Margin to Center
(1984),
Talking Back: Thinking Feminist, Thinking Black
(1989),
Black Looks: Race and Representation
(1992),
Killing Rage: Ending Racism
(1995),
Reel to Real: Race, Sex, and Class at the Movies
(1996),
Remembered Rapture: The Writer at Work
(1999),
Where We Stand: Class Matters
(2000),
Communion: The Female Search for Love
(2002), and the companion books
We Real Cool: Black Men and Masculinity
(2003) and
The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love
(2004).
Writing Beyond Race: Living Theory and Practice
was published in 2012. She also wrote a number of autobiographical works, such as
Bone Black: Memories of Girlhood
(1996) and
Wounds of Passion: A Writing Life
(1997).
Adapted from Encyclopaedia Britannica
bell
hooks
bell appears in
Bridging 2:
Belonging with Connection, bell hooks and john a. powell in conversation
john a. powell
(who spells his name in lowercase in the belief that we should be "part of the universe, not over it, as capitals signify") is an internationally recognized expert in the areas of civil rights, civil liberties, structural racism, housing, poverty, and democracy. He is the Director of the
Othering & Belonging Institute
at the University of California, Berkeley, a research institute that brings together scholars, community advocates, communicators, and policymakers to identify and eliminate the barriers to an inclusive, just, and sustainable society and to create transformative change toward a more equitable world.
john holds the Robert D. Haas Chancellor’s Chair in Equity and Inclusion and is a
Professor of Law
African American Studies, and Ethnic Studies at UC Berkeley
Previously, he was the Executive Director of the
Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity
at The Ohio State University where he also held the Gregory H. Williams Chair in Civil Rights & Civil Liberties at the Moritz College of Law. He has won several awards including the 2021 Housing Hero Award, 2021 John W. Gardner Leadership Award, and the Convergence Bridge-Building Leadership Award for 2022.
He regularly appears in major media offering expert insights on a host of issues. Recent appearances include NPR and WYNC's
On The Media
in an episode about free speech and the constitution,
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
in an episode about housing segregation, and
CBS Evening News
where john discussed the Institute's frameworks like Targeted Universalism. john gives frequent keynotes talks at a range of institutions such as the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Washington State University, the Office of the Minnesota Attorney General, Nonprofit Quarterly, Project Democracy, the Gates Foundation, Habitat for Humanity, the InterFaith Leadership Council, the Permanente Medical Group, and many more.
john has written extensively on a number of issues including structural racism, racial justice, concentrated poverty, opportunity-based housing, voting rights, affirmative action in the United States, South Africa and Brazil, racial and ethnic identity, spirituality and social justice, and the needs of citizens in a democratic society. He is the author of several books, including his most recent work,
Racing to Justice: Transforming our Concepts of Self and Other to Build an Inclusive Societ
The founder and director of the
Institute on Race and Povert
at the University of Minnesota, john has also served as Director of Legal Services in Miami, Florida and was the National Legal Director of the
American Civil Liberties Union
, where he was instrumental in developing educational adequacy theory.
john led the development of an “opportunity-based” model that connects affordable housing to education, health, health care, and employment and is well-known for his work developing the frameworks of
“targeted universalism
and
“othering and belonging
to effect equity-based interventions.
john has lived and worked in Africa, where he was a consultant to the governments of Mozambique and South Africa, and has also worked in India and Brazil. He is one of the co-founders of the
Poverty & Race Research Action Council
and serves on the board of several national and international organizations. He is also a member of the
New Pluralists
. john has taught at numerous law schools including Harvard and Columbia University.
Follow john on Twitter
@profjohnapowel
and read his blogs on
HuffPo
john a.
powell
john guides
our
Introduction to Othering &  Belonging's Key Frameworks
course.
Additionally, he appears in the courses named below.
Bridging 1:
The Risk & Possibility of Bridging, john a. powell and Judith Butler in conversation
Bridging 2:
john a. powell on power
and
john a. powell on levels of bridging
Structural Racism:
White Space, Black Hood
Joy Harjo
is an internationally renowned performer and writer of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. She served three terms as the 23rd Poet Laureate of the United States from 2019-2022 and is winner of Yale's 2023 Bollingen Prize for American Poetry.
The author of ten books of poetry, including the highly acclaimed,
Weaving Sundown in a Scarlet Light: Fifty Poems for Fifty Years
, several plays and children's books, and two memoirs,
Crazy Brave
and
Poet Warrior
, her many honors include the National Book Critics Circle Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award, the Ruth Lily Prize for Lifetime Achievement from the Poetry Foundation, the Academy of American Poets Wallace Stevens Award, and a Guggenheim Fellowship.
Harjo delivered the 2021 Windham-Campbell Lecture at Yale, part of the virtual Windham-Campbell Prize Festival that year. That lecture was the basis for Catching the Light, published in 2022 by Yale University Press in the Why I Write series.
As a musician and performer, Harjo has produced seven award-winning music albums including her newest,
I Pray for My Enemies
. She served as Exec­u­tive Edi­tor of the anthol­o­gy
When the Light of the World was Sub­dued, Our Songs Came Through — A Nor­ton Anthol­o­gy of Native Nations Poet­ry
and the editor of
Living Nations, Living Words: An Anthology of First Peoples Poetry
, the companion anthology to her signature Poet Laureate project.
She is a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, Board of Directors Chair of the Native Arts & Cultures Foundation, and is the first Artist-in-Residence for Tulsa's Bob Dylan Center. She lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Find her on
Instagra
, and
Faceboo
or
at her websit
Joy
Harjo
Joy appears in
Bridging  2:
The Risk and Possibility of Bridging
Judith Butler
is Distinguished Professor in the Graduate School and formerly the Maxine Elliot Chair in the Department of Comparative Literature and the Program of Critical Theory at the University of California, Berkeley. They received their Ph.D. in Philosophy from Yale University in 1984.
They are the author of several books:
Subjects of Desire: Hegelian Reflections in Twentieth-Century France
(1987),
Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity
(1990),
Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of “Sex”
(1993),
The Psychic Life of Power: Theories of Subjectio
n (1997),
Excitable Speech
(1997),
Antigone’s Claim: Kinship Between Life and Death
(2000),
Precarious Life: Powers of Violence and Mourning
(2004);
Undoing Gender (2004), Who Sings the Nation-State?: Language, Politics, Belonging
(with Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak in 2008),
Frames of War: When Is Life Grievable?
(2009),
Is Critique Secular?
(co-written with Talal Asad, Wendy Brown, and Saba Mahmood, 2009),
Sois Mon Corps
(2011), co-authored with Catherine Malabou,
Parting Ways: Jewishness and the Critique of Zionism
(2012),
Dispossession: The Performative in the Political
(co-authored with Athena Athanasiou 2013),
Senses of the Subject and Notes Toward a Performative Theory of Assembly
(2015), and a co-edited volume,
Vulnerability in Resistance
, with Duke University Press (2015), T
he Force of Nonviolence
(2020), and
What World is This? A Pandemic Phenomenology
(2022). Their books have been translated into more than twenty-seven languages.
They served as a founding director, with Martin Jay, of the Critical Theory Program at UC Berkeley. They received a Mellon Foundation grant to found and developed the International Consortium of Critical Theory Programs (2016-2020) where they serve now as Co-Chair of the Board and editorial member of Critical Times. Earlier, they served as Department Chair of the Department of Rhetoric in 1998-2003 and 2006-7, and the Acting Chair of the Department of Gender and Women’s Studies, 2002-3. They also served as the Chair of the Board of the University of California Humanities Research Center in Irvine. They were elected member of the Executive Council of the Modern Languages Association and chaired its committee on Committee on Academic Freedom and Professional Responsibilities before serving as President of the organization in 2020.  They are also affiliated faculty with the Psychosocial MA Program at Birkbeck College University of London and teaches as the  Hannah Arendt Chair at the European Graduate School in Sass Fee, Switzerland.  They have taught as a Distinguished Visiting Professor in Philosophy at the New School University in 2020-2022. They will be the intellectual in residence at the Centre Pompidou in Paris in 2024.
Butler has been active in several human rights organizations, including the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York and the advisory board of Jewish Voice for Peace. They were the recipient of the Andrew Mellon Award for Distinguished Academic Achievement in the Humanities (2009-13) and received the Adorno Prize from the City of Frankfurt (2012) in honor of their contributions to feminist and moral philosophy, the Brudner Prize from Yale University for lifetime achievement in gay and lesbian studies, and was named the Albertus Magnus Professorship from the City of Cologne, Germany in 2016. They are the past recipient of several fellowships including Guggenheim, Rockefeller, Ford, American Council of Learned Societies, and was Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton and at Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris. They have given the Wellek Lectures at Irvine, the Carpenter Lectures at the University of Chicago, the Watts Lecture at the Nobel Museum in Stockholm, the Gauss Lectures at Princeton, the Messenger Lectures at Cornell, the Tanner Lectures at Yale University, and the annual Freud Lecture at the Freud Museum in Vienna.  They have received 14  honorary degrees: Université Bordeaux-III, Université Paris-VII, Grinnell College, McGill University, University of St. Andrews, Université de Fribourg in Switzerland, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Liège Université, the Universidad de Costa Rica, Universidad de Guadalajara, Universidad de Chile, University of Belgrade, Universidad Veracruzana, and the Autonomous University of Mexico and appointed an Honorary fellow at Birkbeck University of London. In 2014, they were awarded the diploma of Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters from the French Cultural Ministry and subsequently reappointed as Commandant. They served as well on the Advisory Committee of the Institute fuer Sozialforschung in Frankfurt. In 2015, they were made an “honorary geographer” by the American Association of Geographers and was elected as a corresponding fellow of the British Academy. They were also elected as member of the American Philosophical Society and  elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2019. In 2022, they received the Catalonia International Prize from the canton of Catalunya and the gold medal from the Circulo de Bellas Artes in Madrid.
Judith
Butler
Judith appears in
Bridging 1:
The Risk and Possibility of Bridging, john a. powell and Judith Butler in conversation
Winona LaDuke
—an Anishinaabekwe (Ojibwe) member of the White Earth Nation—is an environmentalist, economist, author, and prominent Native American activist working to restore and preserve indigenous cultures and lands. Winona LaDuke is a rural development economist and author working on issues of Indigenous Economics, Food, and Energy Policy. She co-founded Honor the Earth, a platform to raise awareness and support for indigenous  environmental issues.
She graduated from Harvard University in 1982 with a B.A. in economics (rural economic development) and from Antioch University with an M.A. in community economic development. While at Harvard, she came to understand that the problems besetting native nations were the result of centuries of governmental exploitation. At age 18 she became the youngest person to speak to the United Nations about Native American issues.
In 1989 LaDuke founded the White Earth Land Recovery Project in Minnesota, focusing on the recovery, preservation, and restoration of land on the White Earth Reservation. This includes branding traditional foods through the Native Harvest label.
In 1993 LaDuke gave the Annual E. F. Schumacher Lecture entitled “Voices from White Earth.” That same year she co-founded and is executive director of Honor the Earth, whose goal is to support Native environmental issues and to ensure the survival of sustainable Native communities. As executive director she travels nationally and internationally to work with Indigenous communities on climate justice, renewable energy, sustainable development, food sovereignty, environmental justice, and human rights.
Among the books she has authored are
All Our Relations: Native Struggles for Land and Life
(1999, 2016);
The Winona LaDuke Reader: A Collection of Essential Writings
(2002);
Recovering the Sacred: The Power of Naming and Claiming
(2005);
The Militarization of Indian Country
(2013).
LaDuke’s many honors include nomination in 1994 by Time magazine as one of America’s 50 most promising leaders under 40; the Thomas Merton Award in 1996, the Ann Bancroft Award for Women’s Leadership in 1997, and the Reebok Human Rights Award in 1998. In 1998 Ms. Magazine named her Woman of the Year for her work with Honor the Earth. She was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 2007, and in 2017 she received the Alice and Clifford Spendlove Prize in Social Justice, Diplomacy, and Tolerance.
Winona LaDuke was an active leader as a Water Protector with the Dakota Access Pipeline protests in 2017 at Standing Rock, where the Sioux Nation and hundreds of their supporters fought to preserve the Nation’s drinking water and sacred lands from the damage the pipeline would cause. Over the years her activism has not deviated from seeking justice and restoration for Indigenous peoples.
Biography from the Schumacher Center for a New Economics.
Winona
LaDuke
Winona appears in
Bridging 3:
Bridging Across Indigenous and Somali Immigrant Communities
Targeted Universalism
Course hub
Check out all of our courses on targeted universalism! Start with an introduction to the framework before walking through its five stages — and when you are ready for more, dig through our resource library on targeted universalism.
T.U. ONE
: What is Targeted Universalism?
Are you curious about targeted universalism (T.U.)? This is a great place to start. T.U. is a framework developed by OBI that goes beyond a call for inclusion in existing structures that serve only some of us. Instead, it invites members of any community to roll up their sleeves and co-create new structures designed to serve all of us. In this course, you’ll hear from practitioners sharing how T.U. can be applied across a wide range of contexts—whether in classrooms, small nonprofits, large philanthropic organizations, businesses, or even entire governments.
Click here to access this course now.
T.U. TWO
: Stages of Targeted Universalism, part 1
Explore the formative stages of targeted universalism. In this course, you will get to dive into the first three stages: learn how to develop universal goals and assess how people are situated to that goal. Through case studies, we will also examine how T.U. can be implemented in a number of fields — in education, philanthropy, and cross-sector consultancy.
Click here to access this course now.
T.U. THREE
: Stages of Targeted Universalism, part 2
Dig deeper into the stages of targeted universalism as you explore how structures and barriers determine group progress, and learn to develop and implement targeted strategies to transform those structures. We'll close out with some advice and reflections for the journey ahead. Once you've finished these three courses, you will receive a certificate!
Click here to access this course now.
T.U. FOUR
: Targeted Universalism Resource Hub
Ready for more on targeted universalism? Check out resources like our rich primer text, explainer videos, panel discussions, podcasts, and more. Different than our first three installments of the T.U. series, this is a collection of resources that you can dig through unguided.
Click here to access this resource now.
Bridging
Course hub
Check out all of our courses on bridging! Start by laying the fundamentals and work your way up through the levels of bridging. Hear how communities across the world build bridges and then learn how to bridge yourself.
Bridging One
: Fundamentals of Bridging
This lesson begins with a discussion of the risks and opportunities of bridging with renowned feminist philosopher Judith Butler and OBI director john a. powell. You’ll then go deeper into concepts like breaking, an essential feature of the process of othering; the role of curiosity with expert bridger Monica Guzman; and the essential role bridging plays in building cultures of belonging with philosopher bell hooks.
Click here to access this course now.
Bridging Two
: Levels of Bridging
This lesson walks you through the scales and the stakes of bridging. OBI Director john a. powell opens by outlining the three levels of bridging: individual, group, and collective. A panel conversation follows featuring brilliant thinkers Joy Harjo, Bayo Akomolafe, ALOK, and Akaya Windwood who all share their real-life experiences with bridging. Lastly, OBI Deputy Director and longtime organizer Ashlin Malouf-Gashaw describes why she bridges and why this practice is crucial for our survival.
Click here to access this course now.
Bridging Three
: Community Stories of Bridging
In this lesson, we’ll hear stories of bridging directly from the communities who are engaged in the practice. Organizers and activists share their struggles with bridging across power, tensions over identity and place, and the significance of solidarity in successful bridging. The stories shared in this lesson range from Palestinian-Israeli bridging, organizing for climate justice, Indigenous and immigrant collaboration, and more.
Click here to access this course now.
Bridging Four
: How to Bridge
In this lesson you’ll learn the brass tacks of bridging from different practitioners. We’ll hear from Indigenous scholar Yuria Celidwen, canvassing expert Ella Barrett, and the always-curious Monica Guzman. As a special bonus we've included embodiment practice you can bookmark and use every time you go into a tough situation.
Click here to access this resource now.
Dr. Charles Chip Mc Neal
is an award-winning, international educator, researcher, civic leader & activist – engaging in transdisciplinary practice across art-forms and genres, with a focus on arts, educational equity, social justice, community engagement, and cultural competency. He guides government agencies, non-profits, and schools on change-management, creative collaboration, program creation, equitable arts policies, diversity, and organizational cultural competency.
Mc Neal has over 30 years of senior leadership experience and flexibly negotiates the intersection between creativity, new technologies, and professional learning. He has trained in multiple culturally responsive practices including; restorative justice techniques, social-emotional learning, and Teaching Tolerance curriculum (from the Southern Poverty Law Center). He is an accredited Integrated Learning Specialist and a certified Oral Historian. A frequent and sought-after conference presenter, Mc Neal has lectured on arts, education, social justice, multiculturalism, and equity for The Edinburgh International Festival, UC Berkeley, Stanford University, and Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Mr. McNeal is the first-ever Director of Diversity, Equity and Community for the San Francisco Opera. A pioneering leader in the field of arts, McNeal is ostensibly the first director of diversity for an opera company in the United States. Mr. McNeal has operationalized a new department in a major arts organization for the second time. In his role, he leads internal and external initiatives aimed at developing diverse audiences, creating a safe, and diverse working environment and facilitating the further advancements of the organizational mission. He is tasked with creating a culture of belonging and acceptance, we’re diverse peoples on value and inspiration in the arc of Opera. He is guided by the goals and objectives outlined in the 2019 Strategic Plan – to place develop diversity, and equity inclusion at the core of arts and business practice. Mr. McNeal works organization-wide to advise, consult, and mentor on diversity and equity initiatives.
He also continues training teaching artists, conducts arts research, develops novel initiatives, and advises on artistic content, culturally responsive pedagogy, creative collaboration and more. He designs and curates accredited professional development training for credentialed educators who partner with the San Francisco Opera.
A celebrated dance educator, Mr. Mc Neal is the former Director of Education for San Francisco Ballet where he established the distinguished, San Francisco Ballet Center for Dance Education, engaging over 30,000 people annually through 1,500 culturally diverse events.
Mc Neal served as a Transformative Learning Coach, Leadership Advisor and Arts Integration Specialist for Alameda County Office of Education where he developed culturally responsive, inquiry-based, social justice curriculum. He is a founding member of the San Francisco Unified School District’s Arts Education Master Plan Advisory Committee. McNeal is on the Leadership Council of Create California, a statewide-advocacy consortium, where he Chairs the Equity Committee – working to creating a sustainable, equitable, arts learning eco-system for the state of California.
Mr. Mc Neal holds two bachelor’s degrees – in psychology, and sociology from Excelsior University, and a master’s degree in education from Lesley University. Dr. Mc Neal holds a Ph.D. in Transformative Studies in Education from the California Institute for Integral Studies in San Francisco. Mc Neal’s research focuses on Critical Pedagogy, Culturally and Linguistically Responsive studies, and Artistic Inquiry and lies at the intersection of arts, cultural responsiveness, and educational equity as he devises solutions to the pressing issues of education reform and racial equity in the arts.
Dr. Charles Chip
Mc Neal
Charles appears in
Structural Racism:
Structural Racism Explained
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