MEET MICHAEL
Michael brings a business background of fifteen years in national insurance operations, product market development and managed healthcare operations and consulting to some of the nation’s largest corporations, unions, and governmental entities. The past twenty years or more he has dedicated to his long-held concern for his community and the future of all children. Michael is the co-founder of The Equity Institute which was an organic outgrowth of years of work by Domus in the equity and justice arena. As TEI’s managing consultant Michael works to provide fact-based historical trainings and experiences that prepares agencies and businesses to create their own plans for and equity-centered workplace or social service agency.
He has been an active member of or served on the boards of many organizations. Whether it has been housing affordability, food insecurity, law enforcement, or education, Michael has raised his voice and organized others to speak out and to work towards a more equitable Stamford for all of our citizens.
Michael is proud of the Stamford Public Schools and has always believed in our capacity to do even better. As a director on the Stamford Partnership board Michael advocated for the Partnership to add education and the then unrecognized Stamford achievement gap to its’ priorities. He penned an op-ed piece for the Stamford Advocate “The Sad Facts of Educating African American Children” using the district’s data to vividly show that an educational gap existed but was also undeniable. That same year, collaborating with the Stamford campus of UCONN and CTE, Inc Michael helped orchestrate Stamford’s first ever conversation on the Achievement Gap attended by a large collection of political, religious, and community leaders.
Michael’s Stamford educational involvement and interests have been and are many:- Teacher (TOR—Algebra and Language Arts)
- Administrator (School-to-Career and Business & Education liaison with the Chamber of Commerce) Approx. 200 high school students each year participated in meaningful employer paid professional career internships
- Member of Stamford Cradle to Career
- Charter member of the Advisory Board which founded the Academy of Information Technology (AIT, later AITE)
- 10 years as director of the Chester Addison Community Center which included an afterschool program with educational wraparound services and family advocacy
- Chair of the Scholarship Committee of The 100 Black Men of Stamford
- Superintendent’s Core Committee (created at the start of the Covid Crisis)
- Family & Community Engagement Committee
- Ferguson Library, board member and vice chair
- Person-to-Person, board member, chair DEI committee
- 100 Black Men of Stamford, VP Operations, chair of annual scholarship committee
- Interfaith Council of Southwestern CT, officer and board member
- Everyday Democracy, forum facilitator
- Advisor, Canal Street Community Development project
Past board memberships/activities:
- Stamford Youth Tennis Academy
- Jackie Robinson Park of Fame (chair)
- Affordable Housing Action Collaborative
- Child Care Learning Centers
- Notre Dame (Manhattan) School for Girls
- Greenwich Academy
- Stamford Partnership
- Union Baptist Church, co-chair Capital Stewardship II
- President, Stamford NAACP (former) Silver Life Member (current)
- Advisor to Vidal Court Residence Board (Joint $93 million initiative with Stamford Housing Authority to redevelop neighborhood for mixed-income affordable housing)
- Aspen Institute presenter “What Every America Needs to Know”
