Faculty & Staff

Dr. Brandon McCormack

Dr. Michael Brandon McCormack (Associate Professor of Pan-African Studies and Comparative Humanities) was director of the Anne Braden Institute for Social Justice Research from 2021 - 2023. McCormack earned his PhD in 2013 from the Vanderbilt University Department of Religion, where he was also a fellow. He is also a proud undergraduate alum of UofL.

His research explores the intersections between Black religion, popular culture, the arts and activism. He teaches courses in African American religion, religions of the African diaspora and religion and hip-hop culture. He is one of the university’s inaugural Ascending Stars Fellows and an Academic Research Fellow at the Benjamin L. Hooks Institute for Social Change at the University of Memphis. He is also a member of the Black Interfaith Project, a national network of academics, artists and activists engaged in research and action around the role of Black religious and spiritual practices in movements for social justice.

McCormack is a frequent speaker and lecturer, having been invited to speak at a range of institutions from HBCUs to Ivies. He finds his deepest joy in speaking outside of academia — at churches, public schools, community centers and other places where everyday folks are gathered and engaged in collective meaning-making and ongoing struggles for freedom.

Dr. Catherine Fosl

Dr. Fosl is a professor of Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies and founding director of the Anne Braden Institute. Fosl was Anne Braden’s biographer and is the author of Subversive Southerner: Anne Braden and the Struggle for Racial Justice in the Cold War South (Palgrave Macmillan, 2002; University Press of Kentucky, 2006), as well as the books Freedom on the Border: An Oral History of the Civil Rights Movement in Kentucky (co-authored with Tracy E. K’Meyer, University Press of Kentucky, 2009) and Women for All Seasons: The Story of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (University of Georgia Press, 1989). Subversive Southerner won the 2003 Oral History Association Book Award and was named an Outstanding Book in 2003 by the Gustavus Myers Center for Human Rights.

Through the institute, Fosl has striven to widen public understanding of the significance in U.S. social movement history of Anne Braden and other understudied figures and currents at the grassroots level. She has advanced engaged scholarship that is grounded in collaboration between researchers and their subjects, producing knowledge that can be acted upon. By providing activists with broader historical and intellectual tools to enhance their efforts, such knowledge can advance racial and social justice aims. At the same time, the institute exposes scholars to a greater range of community-based knowledge.

Dr. J. Blaine Hudson (1949 - 2013)

The late Dr. Hudson was the former dean of the College of Arts & Sciences and a professor of Pan-African Studies.

As a creator of the institute, Hudson was a visionary educator and longtime university and community leader who was also a renowned scholar of African American history. He was the author of Fugitive Slaves and the Underground Railroad in the Kentucky Borderland (McFarland, 2002) and of the Encyclopedia of the Underground Railroad (McFarland, 2006), as well as many articles. He co-authored the book Two Centuries of Black Louisville: A Photographic History. As a young student activist in the 1960s, Hudson was mentored by Anne Braden and they remained friends for nearly forty years.

The Anne Braden Institute is one of many vehicles through which Hudson enacted his life-long commitment to connecting history to urban problems and to social change. Another was the Saturday Academy program, a non-credit “open classroom” learning series in African and African American history held in western Louisville.

• David Ross Anderson, Associate Professor of English
• Pamela Beattie, Chair and Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary Humanities
• Lisa Danielle Bjorkman, Associate Professor of Urban and Public Affairs
• Aishia Ayanna Brown, Assistant Professor of Health Promotion and Behavioral Sciences
• Anna T Browne Ribeiro, Assistant Professor of Anthropology
• Nefertiti Burton, Emeritus Faculty
• Ying Kit Chan, Professor of Fine Arts
• Karen M. Chandler, Associate Professor of English, Chair of English
• Dewey M. Clayton, Professor of Political Science
• Amy B Clukey, Associate Professor of English and Honors Advisor
• Fannie Mae Cox, Associate Professor, Outreach and Reference Librarian, University of Louisville Libraries
• Hilaria Cruz, Assistant Professor of Comparative Humanities
• Cherie Dawson-Edwards, Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs and Professor of Criminal Justice
• Rebecca Devlin, Assistant Professor Term of History
• Tyler David Fleming, Associate Professor of Pan African Studies
• Catherine Fosl, Emeritus Faculty & ABI Founding Director
• Lauren Freeman, Professor of Philosophy and Director of the MA in Applied Philosophy
• Melanie Jones Gast, Associate Professor of Sociology, 2021-22 ABI Faculty Fellow
• Joy L. Hart, Professor of Communication, Latin American and Latino Studies Steering Committee, University Honors Program Executive Director
• Lauren Heberle, Professor and Chair of Sociology, Director of the Center for Environmental Policy and Management
• Siddhant Issar, Assistant Professor of Political Science
• Felicia Jamison, Assistant Professor of History and Interdisciplinary Humanities
• Frank P Kelderman, Associate Professor of English and Director of Graduate Studies
• Tracy Elaine K'Meyer, Professor of History
• Avery Kolers, Professor and Chair of Philosophy; Core Faculty Member, Interdisciplinary MA in Health Care Ethics
• Lisa B. Markowitz, Professor of Anthropology
• Michael Brandon McCormack, Associate Professor of Pan-African Studies and Comparative Humanities and Chair of Pan-African Studies, Former Director of the Anne Braden Institute
• Yara Mekawi, Assistant Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences and Director of the Challenging Ongoing Legacies of Racism (COLOR) Lab
• Carrie Yvonne Mott, Assistant Professor of Geographical and Environmental Sciences
• Laura P Moyer, Professor of Political Science, Affiliate Faculty Member of Womens, Gender and Sexuality Studies
• Andrea R Olinger, Associate Professor, Director of Composition and Director of the Thomas R. Watson Conference in Rhetoric and Composition
• Rodger A. Payne, Professor of Political Science
• Megan Renee Poole, Assistant Professor of English
• Aaron C Rollins Jr., Associate Professor and Chair of Urban and Public Affairs, Directors of Peace, Justice and Conflict Transformation and Master of Public Administration Programs
• Mary P Sheridan, Professor of English, Director of the Commonwealth Center for the Humanities and Society
• Rachel Jeanne Singel, Associate Professor of Fine Arts
• Siobhan Elizabeth Smith Jones, Associate Professor of Communications
• Cara Snyder, Assistant Professor of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Affiliated Faculty of the Latin American and Latino Studies program
• Angela Storey, Associate Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Anne Braden Institute
• Kaila A Story Associate Professor of Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies and Pan-African Studies, Audre Lorde Chair in Race, Class, Gender and Sexuality Studies
• Karl Frederic Swinehart, Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary Humanities
• Shelley Thomas, Associate Professor and Assistant Department Chair of Social Studies Education
• Sherri Wallace, Professor of Political Science
• Jasmine Whiteside, Assistant Professor in Sociology
• Bronwyn T. Williams, Professor of English and Endowed Chair in Rhetoric and Composition

2024-2025 Community Advisory Council

Council Co-Chairs

Carla Wallace has been part of organizing for change for over 40 years.  She is a co-founder of Showing Up for Racial Justice (known as SURJ) which moves white people—in particular, those who are poor, working-class and rural—to be part of the multiracial struggle for collective liberation. Mentored by southern civil rights activists including Anne Braden, Carla also co-founded Louisville’s Fairness Campaign, which has been nationally honored for its work winning LGBTQ equity by centering racial justice and connecting community organizing and electoral work. Carla has been inducted into the Kentucky Civil Rights Hall of Fame.

Shameka Parrish Wright is Metro Council’s District 3 representative including Shively and surrounding West End neighborhoods. She also serves as the executive director of VOCAL-KY, an advocacy group focused on ending mass incarceration, homelessness and the War on Drugs. She has dedicated over 25 years of her life to organizing the community to address the issues around the criminalization of poverty.

Mari Mujica is an artist and community advocate with expertise in cultural competency, mindfulness and leadership. With a PhD in cultural anthropology, Mari’s skills are vast including photography, visual art installation, facilitation, diversity consulting, coaching and arts-based workshops. Her community work and advocacy are grounded in feminist theory and inspired by her lifelong dedication to uplifting lived experiences of gender, immigration and domestic violence through her art.

Council Members

Eboni Neal-Cochran is Co-Director of REACT (Rubbertown Emergency ACTion), a grassroots organization of residents living near or at the fence lines of a cluster of chemical facilities commonly referred to as Rubbertown. She has been working with the organization since 2003 educating and working with community members, educating decision makers and pushing for reduced exposure to toxic chemicals.

Amber Duke is Executive Director of the ACLU of Kentucky. Amber was program director for the ABI at UofL. She earned an MA from UofL’s Pan African Studies Department. She also earned a Graduate Certificate in Public History from UofL’s History Department. She has a BS in Communication Studies from NYU.

Sherry Durham is the Associate Director of the Muhammad Ali Institute at the University of Louisville. A native of West Louisville and a graduate of Central High School, Sherry is currently a PhD Candidate in the College Student Personnel Program at the UofL. Sherry is a dedicated member of the Cardinal family having worked at UofL nearly 9 years.

Heather Fox is a native Louisvillian who comes from a line of Southern Baptist preachers and radio announcers. She is a faculty member in the University of Louisville Archives & Special collections where she manages the Oral History Center and is a manuscript archivist. She loves working with people.

Lauren Freeman is a Professor of Philosophy at University of Louisville and Director of the M.A. in Applied Philosophy. She’s also an affiliated faculty member in the Department of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies and faculty affiliate of the Anne Braden Institute. She conducts impact driven, interdisciplinary research that aims to understand how members of marginalized groups are oppressed in both obvious and subtle ways within the context of science, medicine, health and healthcare.

Chad Kamen was raised in Louisville where he first learned about community-building through joining food justice organizing across the city. He currently works in the University of Louisville Archives & Special Collections and focuses on outreach and instruction with the library's rare book collections.

Rev. Canon Dr. Jason D. Lewis serves as Canon for Congregational Vitality and Bishop's Liaison to the Racial Healing Commission and Economic Disparities Task Force of the Diocese of Kentucky. Known for his expertise in Appreciative Inquiry and Asset Based Community Development, he supports communities to leverage assets toward just action and building Beloved Community.

Taylor Martin is a political science graduate student at the University of Louisville. She believes in creating positive change through research, advocacy and education. She collaborates with campus, state and national organizations to increase voter turnout, raise awareness of social justice issues and mobilize action for change. 

K.A. Owens is a veteran community and political organizer. He writes and speaks on a variety of issues and is a longtime radio host. He is a Co-Chair of the Kentucky Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, a former Chair of Kentuckians For The Commonwealth and a member of the Leadership Council of the Fairness Campaign. Mr. Owens earned BA and MA degrees from the University of Louisville. He earned an honorable discharge from the Kentucky Air National Guard. Mr. Owens is a resident of Louisville, KY. 

Romith Paily is a UofL senior in Public Health with three minors. He currently leads UofL’s Bollywood Fusion dance team. He researches e-cigarettes' effects on electrophysiology, works at Air Justice and chairs the library student advisory board—all while preparing for a medical career.

Emma Posey is Emma Posey and I am a sophomore majoring in Political Science and Pan African Studies. On campus, I am a MLK and Porter Scholar, as well as being involved in Engage Lead Serve Board, Black and Brown Honor Society and Diversity Student Ambassadors. I’m excited for my first year on the ABI Council!