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Rutgers University–Newark Interim Chancellor Jeffrey Robinson is an internationally known author and co-founder of the Center for Urban Entrepreneurship and Economic Development at Rutgers Business School. His broad academic and professional background spans business, the social sciences, public policy, and engineering. Since 2008, Robinson has been on the faculty of management and global business at Rutgers Business School. His work addresses community and economic development issues for urban metropolitan areas in the United States and abroad. He has produced grant-funded research projects on high-growth oriented African American women entrepreneurs, social innovation, and minority representation in technology entrepreneurship. He is the co-editor, alongwith Johanna Mair and Kai Hockerts, of the research volumes Social Entrepreneurship, International Perspectives in Social Entrepreneurship, and Values and Opportunities in Social Entrepreneurship. His most recent manuscripts are related to urban social innovation, indigenous social enterprises, and entrepreneurship for economic development. In 2021, Robinson was named the Prudential Chair in Business and was named Rutgers-Newark Provost in 2022.For the past five years, Robinson has partnered with the federal government to develop programs and initiatives that are intended to make the tech sector more inclusive, an effort that is funded by the National Science Foundation. Much of Robinson’s early work to advance social entrepreneurship as a driver for economic development was done through The Center for Urban Entrepreneurship and Economic Development (CUEED). As co-founding assistant director, he helped to create programs that have supported more than 500 entrepreneurs in the region.Robinson is the co-author of two books published by HarperCollins Leadership, including Black Faces in White Places: 10 Game-Changing Strategies to Achieve Success and Find Greatness, which gives Black professionals advice on navigating workplaces where they are in the minority. It was published in 2010.The sequel, published in 2022, is Black Faces in High Places: 10 Strategic Actions for Black Professionals to Reach the Top and Stay There, which won a 2023 Axiom Award, one of the top honors for books about business. Both books were co-authored with Rutgers alumnus Randal Pinkett, Robinson’s long-time friend and business partner, who rose to fame after he refused an offer to share his win on The Apprentice, sparking a national conversation about racism in the workplace.Robinson, who was born in East Orange and raised in Parsippany, holds five academic degrees spanning engineering, urban studies, and business. He completed a Bachelor of Arts in Urban Studies at Rutgers College and a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering at Rutgers School of Engineering, a Master of Science in Civil Engineering Management from Georgia Institute of Technology as a GEM Fellow, and an M.Phil. and Ph.D. in Management and Organizations from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business.Robinson is the recipient of the Aspen Institute’s Social Impact Faculty Pioneer Award for his research, service and teaching activities at the intersection of entrepreneurship and society. His course, Urban Entrepreneurship & Economic Development, was recognized as a model of Innovative Entrepreneurship Education by the U.S. Association of Small Business and Entrepreneurship. Over his 25-year academic career, he has been the keynote speaker or presenter at international events and conferences on six continents.
Richard V. Reeves is the founding president of the American Institute for Boys and Men (AIBM). Before founding AIBM in 2023, Reeves was a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. While at Brookings, he focused on policies related to economic inequality, racial justice, social mobility, and boys and men.Reeves is the author of several books, including “Of Boys and Men: Why the Modern Male is Struggling, Why it Matters, and What to do About It” and “Dream Hoarders: How the American Upper Class Is Leaving Everyone Else in the Dust, Why That is a Problem, and What to do About It.”Inspired by his own experiences as a father and policy expert, Richard founded AIBM to bring awareness to the challenges facing boys and men today and to develop evidence-based solutions.
Dyllan Brown-Bramble is a NY-based technology transactional attorney at a financial institution. Prior to his current role, Dyllan was an associate at a global law firm where he focused on issues of privacy and cybersecurity. Dyllan maintains an active pro bono practice advising early-stage entrepreneurs and small businesses. He also serves on the VOLS Pro Bono Advocates Council and the junior board for the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project. While in law school, he was a Tech Law & Policy Scholar, represented clients in the Intellectual Property and Information Policy Clinic, was a research assistant at the Center on Privacy & Technology, and was a teaching assistant for Computer Programming for Lawyers and Legal Communication Design. Before law school, Dyllan attended Rutgers University where he was a Braven Fellow and a part of the Honors College.
Sharif El-Mekki is the Founder and CEO of the Center for Black Educator Development. The Center exists to ensure there will be equity in the recruiting, training, hiring, and retention of quality educators that reflect the cultural backgrounds and share common socio-political interests of the students they serve. The Center is developing a nationally relevant model to measurably increase teacher diversity and support Black educators through four pillars: Professional Learning, Pipeline, Policies, and Pedagogy. So far, the Center has developed ongoing and direct professional learning, mentoring, and coaching opportunities for Black teachers and other educators serving students of color. The Center also carries forth the freedom or liberation school legacy by hosting Freedom School sites that incorporate research-based curricula and exposes high school and college students to the teaching profession to help fuel a pipeline of Black educators. Prior to founding the Center, El-Mekki served as a nationally recognized principal and U.S. Department of Education Principal Ambassador Fellow. His school, Mastery Charter Shoemaker, was recognized by President Obama and Oprah Winfrey, and was awarded the prestigious EPIC award for three consecutive years as being amongst the top three schools in the country for accelerating students’ achievement levels. The Shoemaker Campus was also recognized as one of the top ten middle school and top ten high schools in the state of Pennsylvania for accelerating the achievement levels of African-American students. In 2014, El-Mekki founded The Fellowship – Black Male Educators for Social Justice, an organization dedicated to recruiting, retaining, and developing Black male teachers. El-Mekki blogs on Philly’s 7th Ward, is a member of the 8 Black Hands podcast and serves on several boards and committees focused on educational and racial justice.
