Joined Hope staff full time in October 2004 after completing two yearlong community art projects at Hope. As the Director of Organizing and Community Building he has developed impressive work, with very diverse and largely low-income teens and young adults, that is impacting individual lives and collectively helping to bring change to a challenged community. His leadership, organizing and relationships make a real growing impact as people work together to build an alternative to gentrification in their community using art, music, and organizing. Studied at Minneapolis College of Art and Design and Atlanta College of Art. Completed certificate programs through the Creative Community Leadership Institute at Intermedia Arts in Minneapolis MN, as well as the Community Action Training and Movement Activist Apprenticeship Program with the Center for Third World Organizing in New York. Participated in media organizing training for progressive leaders with the Center for Media Justice, Gamaliel’s community organizing training, and Community Response Training for Abolitionists with Revolutionary Emergency Partners. Selected as a BMe Black leadership Roundtable participant, Wellstone Fellow (for organizers of color working for voter engagement) and a University of Minnesota Roy Wilkins Fellow (for intense public strategy training). Recipient of the 2013 Bush Foundation Fellow for “recognition of extraordinary achievement and a bet on extraordinary potential.” Engaged in national and international travel, training, and connection focused on art in the context of culture, policy, practice, and community change.