The university’s National Center for Institutional Diversity will convene a national summit  Jan. 29-30 on Ensuring Success for Men of Color: Leveraging Evidence to Drive Better Policy, Practice and Effective Investment.

“The success of men of color in higher education is a profoundly important issue,” said NCID Director John Burkhardt, who collaborated to plan the summit with Frank Harris, III, co-director of the Minority Male Community College Collaborative at San Diego State University, and Victor B. Sáenz, executive director of the Texas Education Consortium for Male Students of Color at the University of Texas at Austin.

“Men of color constitute the smallest proportionally represented demographic among postsecondary students in the U.S.,” said Burkhardt. “Their higher education participation has remained stagnant since the 1970s. Good intentions and half-measures are not enough. Significant change depends on the exchange of views that takes place in a conversation across sectors and involves different spheres of influence.”

Broderick Johnson, assistant to President Obama and cabinet secretary, will be a featured guest. An alumnus of the Law School, Johnson chairs the task force charged with carrying forward the Obama administration’s My Brother’s Keeper initiative.  

In the context of My Brother’s Keeper, summit participants — scholars, practitioners, policy makers and foundation representatives with long-standing commitments to this issue — will re-examine the public discourse surrounding young men of color. They will look at ways to better align research, policy and practice, and will define ways to identify and bolster the impact of current and emerging initiatives.

In addition to Johnson, Harris and Sáenz, featured summit speakers will include Bryant Marks, U-M alumnus and executive director of the Morehouse Research Institute at Morehouse College; James L. Moore, director of the Todd Anthony Bell National Resource Center on the African American Male at The Ohio State University; Tyrone Howard, director of the Black Male Institute at UCLA; and Jerlando Jackson, director and chief research scientist of Wisconsin’s Equity & Inclusion Laboratory at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“This meeting offers an opportunity for leaders to relate and strengthen the current steps that are being taken to address this critical issue. It is an honor for the University of Michigan to provide a venue for national scholars, foundations and policy makers, each of whom has a role in assuring that this widespread commitment has genuine and lasting impact,” said Burkhardt.