天美传媒

Neal A. Lester is an expert in African American literary, cultural studies, racial bias and discrimination, especially as regards African Americans.

Lester is a Foundation Professor of English at ASU where he is founding director of the award-winning Project Humanities initiative. He鈥檚 also a popular public speaker, radio guest, op-ed contributor, newspaper columnist, blogger, and discussion facilitator. He is the author, co-author or editor of seven books and numerous articles in journal and magazines on topics such as children's literature, drama, folklore, the politics of hair, the "n-word," and racialized images in American cinema. The recipient of dozens of honors and awards for public scholarship and professional service, Lester conducts race and privilege training in the community and leads Project Humanities' Service Saturdays, an outreach to those experiencing homelessness, once per month in downtown Phoenix.

Rashad Shabazz's academic expertise brings together human geography, Black cultural studies, gender studies, and critical prison studies.
His research explores how race, sexuality and gender are informed by geography. His book, "Spatializing Blackness," (University of Illinois Press, 2015) examines how carceral power within the geographies of Black Chicagoans shaped urban planning, housing policy, policing practices, gang formation, high incarceration rates, masculinity, and health.

Shabazz is an associate professor in the School of Social Transformation. 

Professor Shabazz's scholarship also includes race relations and social justice movements. He is currently working on two projects: the first examines how Black people use public spaces to negotiate and perform race, gender, and sexual identity as well as to express political or cultural identity. The second project uncovers the role Black musicians in Minneapolis played in giving rise to "the Minneapolis sound."

Miki Garcia is an expert in museums and art history.

Garcia is the director of the ASU Art Museum in the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts. Under her leadership, the museum has received significant funding from the Art for Justice Fund for the planning and implementation of the upcoming exhibition 鈥淯ndoing Time: Art and Histories of Incarceration,鈥� opening in fall 2021.

Prior to ASU, Garcia served as executive director and chief curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara (MCASB), where she oversaw curatorial and public strategies.

She has served as a curatorial representative to the Mexican Cultural Institute in Washington, D.C., on behalf of the Getty Foundation and has been a juror for the National Endowment for the Arts, Creative Capital Visual Arts Awards, Art Matters Foundation and more.

Melita Belgrave is an expert in music therapy with older adults and intergenerational programming.

Belgrave has worked as a music therapist in special education, mental health, rehabilitation, hospice, geriatric, and intergenerational settings throughout Texas, Florida, Kansas, and Missouri.

Belgrave is the associate dean for Culture and Access in the Herberger Institute, and an associate professor in the School of Music, Dance and Theatre. Belgrave has also been appointed as a research affiliate at The Mayo Clinic in Arizona and conducts creative aging music groups in the community.

Her research has been published in national and international journals including the Journal of Music Therapy, Music Therapy Perspectives and Frontiers Medicine.

In 2018, Belgrave was recognized by the Black Music Therapy Network, Inc. with the annual service award in recognition for her exemplary commitment to advanced knowledge and practice in the field of music therapy.

Maria Jackson is one of the nation鈥檚 leading authorities on the phenomenon known as creative placemaking. 

Her expertise is in comprehensive community revitalization, systems change, the dynamics of race and ethnicity and the roles of arts and culture in communities.

Jackson is an Institute Professor in the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts, with an appointment in The Design School. Jackson's position is a cross-appointment with the ASU College of Public Service and Community Solutions. 

Cameka Hazel specializes in the supervision and training of professional mental health and school counselors. As a counselor educator, she is an advocate for holistic training for future counselor educators to be effectively prepared to meet the social, emotional and educational needs of the diverse K–12 student population. Her research includes multicultural counseling competence training in counselor education, mental health care for children and families of refugee status and trauma in children. Hazel has presented at local and national conferences on subjects such as helping new school counselors thrive, reducing preventive and risk factors for school counselor burnout and Caribbean national migration experiences to the U.S., and acculturation stressors during the transition process. Her current research focuses on school counselors' perception of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on students' academic, social, and emotional development.
During her role as a practicing school counselor, Hazel has worked at various grade levels—from elementary to high school, in the Jamaican school system, and also specialized in trauma and crisis counseling in volatile school zones. Hazel also served in a Child and Adolescence Outpatient clinic providing mental health care for children and families. Hazel earned a bachelor's degree in Guidance and Counseling at the Mico University (Jamaica), a master's degree in the counseling and psychology program at Boston College, a master's degree in the educational leadership program at Boston College, and a Doctorate in Counselor Education at the University of Rochester. Hazel is currently the faculty advisor for the New York Tech Chi Sigma Iota counseling honor society chapter and is chairperson for the New York State chapter of the American Counseling Association (2022-2023).