Mr.

Mauriell Amechi

Mauriell H. Amechi is the inaugural Director of the

Community Outreach, Retention, and Engagement
(CORE) Program at the University of Minnesota Twin
Cities. In this role, he coordinates the Huntley House
for African American Men, a living-learning
community that supports 15 first-year students each
academic year with the objective of creating a sense of
belonging and facilitating opportunities for personal
and academic growth. An emerging scholarpractitioner in higher education, his research agenda
spans three areas: (1) the stratification of college
opportunity for foster youth and other
underrepresented populations, (2) the role of school
counseling and student support programs in
postsecondary access, retention and completion, and
(3) campus climate issues. Amechis most recent
publication appears in the edited volume, Advancing
Black male student success from preschool through Ph.D. A native of Chicago and Ph.D. candidate at UWMadison, Amechi received his B.A. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and M.A.
in higher education and student affairs from The Ohio State University.
Session Title
So whats your secret? Exploring the impact of a living-learning community centered on Black
college men
Session Description
Developed in the 1920s, living-learning communities quickly emerged as a popular approach for
fostering a sense of connectedness on college and university campuses, facilitating structured
interactions among faculty and peers, integrating academic and non-academic spheres of college life,
and creating a more seamless higher education experience overall. Today it is estimated that more
than 600 living-learning programs exist in American higher education. This interactive session will
explore the Huntley House for African American Men, an emerging L/L program model focused on
the racialized and gendered experiences of males at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities.
Session Objectives
After participating in this session, attendees will be able to:
a) Understand the history of and contemporary models for living-learning programs in
American higher education;
b) Work in diverse teams to discuss and develop concepts for infusing relationship-building
into existing/new programs;
c) Learn general strategies for developing positive relationships with and creating inclusive
educational spaces for Black college men

Dr. T. Elon Dancy

Foundation.

T. Elon Dancy II is Associate Professor of Adult and Higher

Education and Faculty Fellow in the Office of Senior Vice
President and Provost at The University of Oklahoma in
Norman. He holds affiliate faculty appointments in African &
African American Studies, Womens & Gender Studies and
the OU Center for Social Justice. An education sociologist,
Dr. Dancy studies the relationship between college
experience and identity development. With nearly 70
publications to his credit, he is author or editor of 5 books
including The Brother Code: Manhood and Masculinity among
African American Males in College and Black Male Collegians:
Increasing Access, Retention and Persistence in Higher Education. Dr.
Dancy is past editor of the College Student Affairs Journal. In
2014, Diverse Issues in Higher Education Magazine named
him Top Emerging Scholar for his study of underrepresented
students and campus diversity. Dr. Dancy's research on males
of color and academic outcomes has been supported by a
number of funding agencies including the National Science

Session Title: Men in Black: Learning from African American Undergraduate Narratives about
Manhood
Session Description
The presenter will share findings from several interrelated studies investigating how Black
undergraduate men define manhood and the collegiate role in this process. At the forefront of this
research is a multi-institutional qualitative study of 24 African American males enrolled in 12
colleges, both historically Black and historically White institutions. Using an interdisciplinary
approach, the presentation draws upon perspectives in history, Black studies, gender studies,
sociology, cultural studies, psychology, and anthropology. The sessions aim is to stimulate ideas
about equitable collegiate policy and practice that derive from Black undergraduate mens narratives
about what it means to be a man. Further, the presenter will discuss the role of intersecting systems
of oppression on practitioner work with Black male college students. In support of these efforts, the
presenter will use reflective questions to promote engagement and dialogue.
Session Objectives
The sessions aim is to stimulate ideas about equitable collegiate policy and practice that derive from
Black undergraduate mens narratives about what it means to be a man.

Dr. Curtis Lewis

Session Title

Dr. Lewis is principal of Henry Ford Academy: School for

Creative Studies, a college prep middle/high school located in
the heart of Detroit. He was also the founding principal of
Henry Ford Academy: Elementary School located in the
Boston Edison community in Detroit. An accomplished
urban educator, Dr. Lewis taught as a 5th grade teacher,
middle school math teacher, and an alternative education
teacher at the secondary level. Dr. Lewis has presented his
research findings in urban education at a host of conferences;
most notably the American Education Research Association
and Piaget Society Conference. Prior to his principalship at
the Henry Ford Academies, he was Manager of Teacher
Leadership Development for Teach for America for which he
received the Core Value Team award for his unwavering
commitment to effectively developing young educators. In
2013 Dr. Lewis was recognized by the Michigan Chronicle's
40 Under 40 and was recently selected to the third cohort of
the nationally recognized America Achieves Fellowship for

Session Title
Can You Help Me? Exploring the development of authentic relationships with Black males that
promote and facilitate their academic and socio-emotional success.
Session Description
The K-12 schooling experiences of Black males are often characterized as a pipeline to prison.
Black males are suspended and expelled from school at higher rates than any other racial group.
The failures that Black males face in K-12 schools limit their opportunities as adults to become
active participants in the workforce; instead many become participants in crime, unemployment and
the criminal justice system.
This session will explore how a middle and high school in Detroit uses authentic relationship
building, restorative practices and academic mentoring to cultivate a positive and academically
enriching schooling experience for Black males; and how these strategies are working to decrease the
discipline referral, suspension and expulsion rates of Black males at this school.
Session Objectives
Participants will learn how to use restorative practices to cultivate positive relationships with middle
and high school Black males.
Participants will leave with strategies that can be used to create, cultivate and sustain authentic
relationships with Black males.

Dr. Joseph Nelson

Joseph Derrick Nelson is a visiting assistant professor
of educational studies at Swarthmore College, and a
senior research fellow with the Center for the Study of
Boys and Girls Lives at the University of Pennsylvania.
A sociologist of education, school ethnographer, and
teacher educator, his scholarship to date has examined
how school culture influences boys identities; fostered
their resistance to rigid gender norms; and employed
interdisciplinary frameworks to address how schools
limit boys engagement in elementary school settings.
These projects led to publications with Teachers College
Record, Harvard Educational Review, the Psychology of Men
and Masculinity, and co-editing a special issue on boys
education with the Journal of Boyhood Studies. His research
has been supported by the Ford Foundation, the
National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation,

and the International Boys School Coalition. In his
hometown of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Dr. Nelson taught first-grade in a single-sex classroom for
Black and Latino boys.
Session Title
Relational Teaching with Black Boys: Key Strategies for Learning
Session Description
To challenge deficit-oriented perspectives of Black boys as largely independent and nonrelational,
this workshop entails: (1) a brief presentation of evidence-based relational teaching strategies,
designed to facilitate positive learning relationships among early-adolescent Black boys and their
schoolteachers; and (2) small group and whole group discussion of the application of these strategies
with specific boys at the respective schools of workshop attendees. The goal is to assist teachers and
other school professionals with the effective use of these relational strategies, with implications for
boys academic performance and overall school engagement.
Session Objectives
Teachers will understand: How negative stereotypes of Black males obscures teachers ability
to see them as relational beings, and thus compel teachers to deemphasize fostering a
positive learning relationship with their Black male students;

Teachers will be able to: Apply a set of relational teaching strategies with their earlyadolescent and adolescent Black male students;

Dr. Emery Petchauer

Emery Petchauer is an Associate Professor of Urban
Education at Oakland University where his research
focuses on the cultural dimensions of teaching and
learning in urban schools and universities. A former
high school English teacher, he is the author of HipHop Culture in College Students Lives (Routledge, 2012)
and the co-editor of Schooling Hip-Hop: Expanding
Hip-Hop Based Education Across the Curriculum
(Teachers College Press, 2013). In addition to these
academic pursuits, Dr. Petchauer has over fifteen
years of experience organizing urban arts spaces
across the United States.

.
Session Title
Learning and Literacy for All: Lessons from Hip-Hop Culture
Session Description
This interactive session provides an overview of how hip-hop culture can be used as a basis for
learning and healthy classroom environments, particularly for young Black adolescents and men in
schools. The session will probe deeper than rap music by touching on affect, sampling, and other
aesthetic practices that run through hip-hop expressions. Attendees can expect to leave the session
with practical ideas about how to start leveraging hip-hop culture for a more healthy and inclusive
learning environment.
Session Objective
Provide attendees with an overview of hip-hop culture as a basis for learning and healthy classroom
environments.

Mr. Daniel Thomas

Daniel (Dan) Thomas is a native a Cleveland, Ohio. He received a

Bachelors of Science in Human Ecology focusing on Family Studies
while also receiving a minor in African and African American Studies at
The Ohio State University (OSU). Currently, Dan is a Program Manager
in The Todd A. Bell National Resource Center on the African American
Male at OSU. In this role; he develops and assess programming to
increase retention, graduation rates, and sense of community for African
American males at OSU. Dan previously worked with the nations
largest diversity scholarship, The Morrill Scholars Program (MSP),
where he managed the application process and developed opportunities
for MSP recipients to engage in diversity and leadership initiatives in
Ohio and across the nation. Dan has a strong interest in working
collaboratively with college students, promoting higher education to
underprivileged school-aged children, and providing educational
enrichment programs for students outside the classroom.

Session Title
Developing Relationships is the Key to Success: How the Todd A. Bell National Resource Center
on the African American Male Fosters Students Personal and Academic Success
Session Description
The Todd A. Bell National Resource Center on the African American Male (BNRC) hosts annual
programs for African American male students at the Ohio State University to establish relationships
with faculty, staff, and current students and to enhance the students connectedness to the
university. The interactive presentation will focus on several programs (Early Arrival Program,
Success Coaching, Leadership Institute) implemented by the BNRC that impacts the retention,
graduation rates and increased sense of community amongst undergraduate African American male
students. Strategies to increase engagement between universities and African American male
students will be discussed.
Session Objectives
At the end of this session, participants should be able to:

Identify strategies for becoming more actively involved with undergraduate African American
males at their college/institution.
Integrate programs which provide African American male students the confidence and skillset
to be successful at a predominately white institution.

Dr. Vaughn Watson

Vaughn W. M. Watson is a former public high-school English
teacher of 12 years in Brooklyn, N.Y. His areas of research
focus are the interplay of literacy learning, and reimagining
identities for Black youth and youth of color across sociocultural contexts of English education, hip-hop and education,
civic learning and action, and qualitative participatory research
methodologies. His research examines how youth, making
meaning of diverse literacies and identities across creative and
artistic artifacts and practices affiliated with hip-hop, reframe
understandings of changing mandates for student work, and
teacher accountability.

Session title
Examining contemporary youth literacies across listening-party interviews: Enacting participatory
research with Black male youth
Session Description
This interactive workshop session focuses on enacting participatory research roles with Black male
youth to examine contemporary youth literacies, and consider possibilities for co-designing culturally
affirming classroom and school environments. Enacting participatory research roles will involve
calling forth, analyzing, interpreting, and sharing literacy practices in listening-party interviews as
research practices, to demonstrate participatory approaches to establishing and maintaining
stakeholder relationships with Black male youth that assert young mens participatory roles as
contributors in schools and communities.
Session Objectives
Discussing the contributions of participatory research roles and contemporary youth literacies in
creating culturally affirming classroom and school environments.
Understanding how to enact such strategies, approaches, and perspectives to establish and
maintain stakeholder relationships with Black male youth that assert young mens roles as
participants and contributors across academic communities