Charles V. Willie, a sociologist, is a professor of education and urban studies at Harvard University's Graduate School of Education. He is the author of 23 books and over 100 articles, and his research interests cover such topics as race relations, urban education, public health, community development, and family life. His books include A New Look at Black Families (1976), The Education of African-Americans (1991), Theories of Human Social Action (1994), and Mental Health, Racism and Sexism (1995). Dedicated to solving social problems, Willie has been a court-appointed master and an expert witness or consultant in several school desegregation cases, and in 1974 in Philadelphia, he particiapted as a lay-preacher in the ordination for the first eleven women priests in the Episcopal Church of the United States, an act which led Ms. magazine to name him a male hero for his courageous action on behalf of women.
Willie has served as vice president of the American Sociological Association and as president of the Eastern Sociological Society. In addition, he has served on the board of directors of the Social Science Research Council, the technical advisory board of the Maurice Falk Medical Fund, and, by appointment of President Carter, the President's Commission on Mental Health.
Willie earned his bachelor's degree from Morehouse College in 1948, his master's from Atlanta University in 1949 and his doctorate from Syracuse University in 1957, all in sociology. Willie taught at Syracuse University from 1950 to 1974, after which he became a professor of education and urban studies at Harvard University's Graduate School of Education.
Kimberlé Crenshaw is a professor of law at UCLA and at Columbia Law School and a leading figure in the intellectual movement known as critical race theory. She has lectured and written extensively on civil rights, Black feminist legal theory, and race, racism and the law. She is the founding coordinator of the Critical Race Theory workshop, and the co-editor of Critical Race Theory: Key Documents That Shaped the Movement. A specialist on legal issues confronting black women, she assisted the legal team representing Anita Hill and founded African American Agenda 2000, a group of black women and men who have come together to articulate a vision of a society and politics which affirms the centrality of women's issues and leadership in the black community. Her work has appeared in the Harvard Law Review, National Black Law Journal, Stanford Law Review and Southern California Law Review.
She is currently a member of the Aspen Institute Domestic Strategy Group co-chaired by Senator Bill Bradley and Vin Weber, and she sits on a National Research Council panel reviewing research on violence against women. She is also a contributer on the cable network, MSNBC.
Crenshaw earned her bachelor's degree from Cornell University in 1981 and subsequently earned her juris doctorate from Harvard Law School in 1984 and her master's of law degree from the University of Wisconsin in 1985.
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