The Project MALES Fall 2017 Pláticas series will kick-off this Monday September 18, 2017. Our monthly Pláticas feature prominent speakers (e.g., professionals, role models) that facilitate small group discussions among mentor participants. This semester our first speaker will be Dr. Courtney Robinson, founder of the Excellence and Advancement Foundation.
Dr. Robinson is the Founder of the Excellence and Advancement Foundation a non-profit organization that is dedicated to transforming how communities combat the school to prison pipeline and mass incarceration. Excellence and Advancement Foundation uses an ecosystems approach to provide prevention, intervention and advocacy. She is also Founder/CEO of the consulting firm Institute for Excellence and Advancement an organization that assists schools, justice systems and community organizations with critical, transformative and restorative solutions to culture, race, school discipline and incarceration. Her research interests include youth transitions from institutionalized school settings to community school settings, K-12 teacher preparation, the racial socialization of children and adolescents, and the impact of racial identity development on academic performance. Her two newest publications are titled Kids Must Learn Black History Movements and Heroes and Dropout Nation: The School to Prison Pipeline, Educational Reform and Caring for African American and Latino Students. She currently serves as an adjunct professor in Huston-Tillotson University’s Adult Degree Program and its 1st Masters program in Educational Leadership. She was awarded Faculty Member of the year 2014-2015. She appears in Seasons 3 and 4 of BlackademicsTV on PBS and served as a Creative Consultant on Seasons 4 and 5.
Dr. Robinson serves as an expert consultant for The Office of Capital Writs a capital post-conviction state agency charged with representing death sentenced persons in state post-conviction habeas corpus and related proceeding. She has consulted with Austin and Pflugerville Independent School districts. She also consulted with the Seedling Foundation to provide support to children impacted by parental incarceration. She serves on the Greater Austin Area My Brother’s Keeper Violence Prevention & Second Chances Committee, The Criminal Justice Committee of the Mayor’s Task Force on Institutional Racism, Equity Advocates and Pflugerville Independent School District’s Innovation Committee
Dr. Robinson received the Gold Standard Award from Black Excellence and the Purple and Gold Community Leadership Award from Omega Psi Phi, Inc. in 2017. She also received the Education Advocate of the Year award from the Greater Austin Area Black Chamber of Commerce in 2016. She was also awarded the Texas Equity Award in Juvenile Justice by The Center for the Elimination of Disproportionality and Disparities in 2015. Dr. Robinson received her B.F.A. from Howard University, and both her M.Ed. and Ph.D. degrees in Education from the University of Texas at Austin.
Our Plática series is open to the UT community. Please join us this Wednesday September 18, 2017 in SAC 1.106 (Student Activity Center), from 5:30-7:30.
