Greetings Friends and Supporters,
With the help of these fantastic students, we recently launched a social media project called
Like a Heat Wave: A Summer Spotlight Series. We’d like to take the occasion of summer to update you on what else we have been up to lately, and what’s ahead.
This past academic year we hosted a wide range of events, as always free and open to the public, and all now available for viewing on our website. A few stand out for us. In
April we hosted author
Richard Rothstein, who spoke to an overflow crowd about his groundbreaking book,
The Color of Law. Also in April we were fortunate to host another well-attended talk by
Catherine Lhamon, Chair of the newly re-energized U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, who spoke passionately about creating a federal right to public education. We also launched a new series called
Dispatches from the Front Lines of Community Justice, designed to highlight the efforts of individuals and groups promoting community-based policy reform.
We were saddened by the departure of two longtime members of our team, each of whom has moved on to pursue independent projects. Johanna Wald, Director of Strategic Planning and Development, and an original member of the Houston Institute, has embarked on an independent consulting career that allows her to spend more time on her other passions, notably her multi-faceted writing projects. And Ernest Owens, a Staff Assistant for more than ten years, has returned to North Carolina where he is pursuing his musical and media career.
Even as we have said goodbye to these wonderful colleagues, we were joined by Franciska Coleman, a Visiting Scholar who conducted a range of research for publication related to policing in the United States. Franciska will be heading off to her appointment at the University of Kansas School of Law in August.
We are pleased to welcome our newest team member, Research Fellow Katherine Naples-Mitchell, who joins us after having clerked for District Court Judge Anne Thompson, before which she graduated from NYU School of Law with highest distinction. We look forward to having Katy help us create the programmatic activity for
EdAccess, our new education initiative.
Finally, a word about this summer’s undergraduate interns and graduate fellows, seen in the photo above. They have come to us from Amherst College, Spelman College, Columbia University, Harvard University, the University of Louisville and University of Michigan. They are engaged in an array of projects, including making a film of our
10th annual reading on Boston Common of Frederick Douglass’s speech, “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?”
These students are a bridge for us. Not only do they come and go all too quickly, but as they leave they represent the promise of a better future, one informed by the mission of the Institute. They carry their work with them back to their universities and into their careers.
You, too, can be a bridge to the future and we hope you will consider contributing to the Institute. We rely upon your contributions both to sustain us financially and to boost our morale. Click here to make an online contribution:
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