Welcome to my page!
I am a professor, author, and advocate dedicated to positive social change. I have a PhD in Urban and Environmental Planning and Policy (University of California, Irvine) and a Master's in Social Work with an emphasis in Community Organizing (University of Pittsburgh). I presently hold a position as an Assistant Professor at California State University Northridge.
My mission is to serve the community, assisting with individual, local and global transformation. I achieve this through research, teaching, and service. My areas of research expertise include nonprofits, inclusion, exclusion, immigration, citizenship, vulnerable populations, urban inequality, theory building and theory testing, measurement, scale development, mixed method research. As an educator, I invoke anti-oppression pedagogy, equity-based learning, and wellness. I have over 10 years experience in nonprofit management, youth empowerment and education, community organizing, program evaluation, and art-based programs. For five years, I worked as a nonprofit manager at the Urban League, a national African American civil rights organization, where I developed and managed a mentoring program for African American students in Pittsburgh Public Schools that aimed to promote academic equity in the city.
I am the founder and former artistic director of Yemaya Productions (YP), a social enterprise specializing in developing community interventions through art and evidence-based practices. Through my service at YP, I developed hundreds of programs that addressed a range of community problems from conflict in Jos, Nigeria to the marginalization of ethnic communities in Pittsburgh, PA. I recently founded ZSM Research and Education, a network of professors and researchers dedicated to making research more accessible, providing research and educational services to nonprofits, government, schools, and students. My podcast, FAB Untold Stories, combines research and storytelling to raise awareness on urban and social work topics.
I am a professor, author, and advocate dedicated to positive social change. I have a PhD in Urban and Environmental Planning and Policy (University of California, Irvine) and a Master's in Social Work with an emphasis in Community Organizing (University of Pittsburgh). I presently hold a position as an Assistant Professor at California State University Northridge.
My mission is to serve the community, assisting with individual, local and global transformation. I achieve this through research, teaching, and service. My areas of research expertise include nonprofits, inclusion, exclusion, immigration, citizenship, vulnerable populations, urban inequality, theory building and theory testing, measurement, scale development, mixed method research. As an educator, I invoke anti-oppression pedagogy, equity-based learning, and wellness. I have over 10 years experience in nonprofit management, youth empowerment and education, community organizing, program evaluation, and art-based programs. For five years, I worked as a nonprofit manager at the Urban League, a national African American civil rights organization, where I developed and managed a mentoring program for African American students in Pittsburgh Public Schools that aimed to promote academic equity in the city.
I am the founder and former artistic director of Yemaya Productions (YP), a social enterprise specializing in developing community interventions through art and evidence-based practices. Through my service at YP, I developed hundreds of programs that addressed a range of community problems from conflict in Jos, Nigeria to the marginalization of ethnic communities in Pittsburgh, PA. I recently founded ZSM Research and Education, a network of professors and researchers dedicated to making research more accessible, providing research and educational services to nonprofits, government, schools, and students. My podcast, FAB Untold Stories, combines research and storytelling to raise awareness on urban and social work topics.
