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"What My Middle School Students Taught Me About Justice, Education Policy, and Philanthropy"

Wednesday, November 30, 2022

"The Taught Me More Than I Taught Them: What My Middle School Students Taught Me About Justice, Education Policy, and Philanthropy"

A talk by Robert Simmons III, EdD, Head of Social Impact, Micron Foundation

About the Seminar: Dr. Robert Simmons III will share how his father’s incarceration and former students in Detroit and DC, inform his thinking and writing on race, and his role as Head of Social Impact for Micron Technology. Additionally, Dr. Simmons will discuss a grant to support the University of California Riverside’s research-based initiative—AAPI Data.

About the Speaker: Robert Simmons III, EdD is the Head of Social Impact for Micron Technology and the Micron Foundation. As a noted scholar on education and race, American University appointed Robert a Scholar in Residence and Scholar of Antiracist Praxis in the School of Education at where he teaches doctoral courses on race & racism in society and schools, and education policy. As a member of the Diversity Scholars Network at the National Center for Institutional Diversity at the University of Michigan, Robert’s research for the last 15 years has focused on racial equity and the lived realities of historically marginalized communities across multiple K-12 contexts. As the third African American man to ever become a tenured professor at Loyola University Maryland, Dr. Simmons was the founding Director of the Center for Innovation in Urban Education and Institute for Urban Catholic Education at Loyola University Maryland. As a tenured associate professor of Urban Education and Science Education, with a joint appointment in African/African American Studies, Dr. Simmons served as a Research Associate at the Baltimore Education Research Consortium at Johns Hopkins University.

Robert has authored over 50 publications, focusing on race and racial justice, as well as equity, diversity and inclusion. His next book, Interrupting the School to Prison Pipeline: African American Males as Critical Scholars and Intellectuals, is part autobiographical reflecting on his fathers' incarceration while offering insights into the educational experiences of African American males. A former middle school science teacher in the Detroit Public Schools, Robert was nominated twice as the Walt Disney National Teacher of the Year and once for the Whitney and Elizabeth MacMillan Foundation Outstanding Educator Award. As a fellow with the Woodrow Wilson Fellowship Foundation and the Fulbright Memorial Fund, Robert traveled to Costa Rica and Japan to study educational systems and conduct environmental research in the rainforest. Selected for the Outstanding Alumni Award from the College of Education and Human Development at Western Michigan University and the BE Modern Man Award from Black Enterprise, Robert has dedicated over 20 years of his professional life to supporting urban youth, their families and the community.


Contact Information

UCR School of Public Policy