DR. BRIAN PERKINS TO BE A FEATURED PANELIST AT THE AUGUST 27, 2013 CONFERENCE ON CIVIL RIGHTS AT THE WASHINGTON COURT HOTEL.
Dr. Brian Perkins is the Director of the Urban Education Leadership Program at Columbia University Teachers College Department of Organization and Leadership. Dr. Perkins is a distinguished Yale alumnus and was named a Timothy Dwight Fellow in 2004. He was a member of the research faculty at the Yale University School of Medicine. He has served as a consultant to school districts throughout the U.S., the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of South Africa. He was recently the President of the New Haven Board of Education where he served for almost 11 years. He also served for four years on the Board of Directors of the National School Boards Association. Dr. Perkins served two terms as national chair for CUBE: Council of Urban Boards of Education and was the chair for the National Black Caucus of School Board Members. Dr. Perkins was also the national chair of the Leadership for Healthy Communities initiative of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Dr. Perkins is the author of several published articles and book chapters and serves as the Principal Investigator and Author of Where We Learn (2006), Where We Teach (2007) and What We Think (2008) – the largest studies on urban school climate in the history of public education. His forthcoming manuscript, Improving School Climate from the Inside Out, is scheduled to be released later this year. Dr. Perkins has recently released a survey and study (endorsed by the National School Boards Association) to better understand school climate. The results of the study were released in 2011 and believed to impact school district practices across the nation. Given his extensive experience, we feel very fortunate to have him as a principal participant in this very important conversation on civil rights.