john a. powell

john a. powell is Director of the Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society, and Professor of Law, African American and Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. He was previously the executive director at the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at Ohio State University, and the Institute for Race and Poverty at the University of Minnesota.

Prior to this, he served as the national legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union. He is co-founder of the Poverty & Race Research Action Council and serves on the boards of several national and international organizations. powell led the development of an “opportunity-based” model that connects affordable housing to education, health and health care, and employment, and is well known for his work developing the frameworks of “targeted universalism” and “othering and belonging” to effect equity-based interventions.

Mr. powell has taught at numerous law schools, including Harvard and Columbia Universities, and is the author of Racing to Justice: Transforming Our Concepts of Self and Other To Build An Inclusive Society.