Meet the Academy of Fellows

Every 18 months, the Institute invites people of remarkable accomplishments from a cross section of professional endeavors to join the distinguished Academy of Fellows chaired by renowned journalist and author Bankole Thompson. Invitees go through a rigorous process of selection through which their passion and specific interest and field of research are taken into consideration.

During the 18-month fellowship, fellows are expected to write four articles regarding inequality, inclusion and poverty that will be published on the PuLSE’s commentary section as the Poverty Matters blog, participate in at least three activities of the Institute and complete a personal project that helps to fight poverty.

All fellows are social impact volunteers driven by their interest and commitment to improving the lives of those who live in the shackles of poverty. Announcement of the 2020 cohorts will be made in September 2019.

Mike Smith is currently the Johanna Meijer Magoon Principal Archivist at the Bentley Historical Library at The University of Michigan. He is also archivist for the Detroit Jewish News Foundation.  He has 30 years of experience as an archivist and historian of Detroit and Michigan, including nine years as Director of the Walter Reuther Library at Wayne State University. Before earning his academic degrees, Mike worked as a truck driver, mechanic, pizza maker, and warehouseman in Detroit, and served in the United States Marine Corps.

Smith has presented and published extensively on such topics as Detroit history, Michigan History, African American History, Detroit Jewish History, and the history of the American Labor movement and automotive industry.  He has appeared in numerous local, national and foreign documentary films about Detroit, and has been quoted in such in local and national media as the New York Times, Washington Post, Financial Times, CNN, and The Detroit News and Free Press.  In 2009, Mike was nominated for Archivist of the United States.

Smith’s work in Detroit has provided him with the opportunity to meet many people and communities in Detroit.  He has been an advocate for the city and state, as well as such organizations as the Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries.

At The PuLSE Institute, Smith, contributes to how poverty affects the economic prosperity of people, and how labor contributed to building the middle class in Detroit and the region.

The host of Riddle@Random on Detroit 910AM SUPERSTATION; Sam Riddle is an Honorably Discharged Viet-Nam Era Veteran that acquired a G.E.D. after dropping out of high school to enlist. 

A student activist organizer that shut down a Big Ten basketball game to protest racism Sam also led anti-war demonstrations and co-founded the Black Student Aide program at Michigan State University that enabled Black students to survive and thrive in a white academic environment . 

Sam Riddle earned a B.A. degree from MSU’s James Madison College with a major in ethnic and religious intergroup relations. Riddle received his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Michigan Law School. 

Sam Riddle has over 45 years of experience in management, political and media consulting with an emphasis on crisis management.

Sam currently serves as a Senior Fellow with the internationally acclaimed anti-poverty think tank PuLSE Institute. Sam is Political Director for the Michigan Chapter of the National Action Network where he has confronted corporate welfare, systemic racism and advocated for single mothers.

Riddle was a columnist for The Michigan Citizen ‘Detroit Raw’; and was a founder of “The Flint Voice” newspaper with filmmaker Michael Moore whom Riddle worked with on the Academy Award winning film Bowling for Columbine. Sam still serves as spokesman for the family of Isaiah Shoels the only Black student slain the Columbine High School Massacre in 1999. Riddle met with President Clinton and the First Lady to discuss school violence solutions in the aftermath of Columbine.

Riddle appears as a political commentator addressing poverty, the Flint Water Crisis national and international issues for WVON Talk of Chicago and other mainstream TV & radio stations. 

At The PuLSE Institute, Riddle focuses on how veterans are struggling with economic inequality, political leadership and urban poverty.

Internationally renowned, New York-based Luba Lukova is regarded as one of the most original image-makers working today. Whether by using an economy of line, color and text to pinpoint essential themes of humanity or to succinctly visualize social commentary, her work is undeniably powerful and thought-provoking.

In Lukova’s art, less is more. More effect, more message, more expression; all while doing it with less. The graphic elements are bold with few fine details but the intent is clear. Her messages reflect the human condition, fundamental fairness, and justice. Yet while it is easy to focus solely on the messages of her provocative works, it is important to take a step back to appreciate the artistic merit in her simplicity. Her use of striking, metaphoric images gives the viewers art to not only appreciate visually but intellectually.

Lukova’s work is included in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Denver Art Museum; Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris; Hong Kong Heritage Museum; Centre de la Gravure et de l’Image imprimée, La Louvière, Belgium; the Library of Congress; and the World Bank, Washington, D.C. Her solo exhibitions include UNESCO, Paris; DDD Gallery, Osaka, Japan; La MaMa Gallery, New York; the Art Institute of Boston; and the Museum of Design Atlanta (MODA).

Reflecting on complex social issues has been Lukova’s career-long focus because of her firmly held belief that art is central to human existence and that morality and creativity are aligned. In 2008 she released her Social Justice portfolio, addressing themes such as peace, censorship, immigration, ecology, hunger, and corruption. The twelve iconic images soon became a best-selling publication and requests for exhibits and reproductions in magazines, newspapers and books came from around the globe. The collection was included in the prestigious art exhibition at the first inauguration of President Obama in Washington D.C. and has been exhibited widely in the U.S., France, Turkey, Greece, Israel, and Mexico. Nine years since its publication, the series is as relevant as ever and the artist continues to create new social commentary work. In her words, she has “plenty of topics to tackle in the future.”

​Lukova has received commissions from Adobe, Sony Music, Canon, The New York Times, Time, and Harvard University, among others. Her drawings grace the Verve Records CD box set Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington at the Cote D’Azur, which was nominated for a Grammy Award for best recording package design. Lukova has collaborated with some of the visionaries of the contemporary theater, creating striking posters for the productions of Judith Malina and the Living Theatre, Ellen Stewart and La MaMa Theater, and Sir Peter Hall. The first theater poster she ever designed, There Is No Death for the Songs, is now included in the permanent collection of MoMA, New York. Lukova’s many awards include the Grand Prix Savignac at the International Poster Salon in Paris; the Gold Pencil from The One Club in New York; Honor Laureate at the International Poster Exhibition in Fort Collins, CO; and a grant from the Reisman Foundation. She holds an honorary doctoral degree from the Art Institute of Boston. At The PuLSE Institute, Lukova focuses on arts and social justice.  

Daniel B. Syme, a graduate of the University of Michigan and Columbia University Teachers College, is the Rabbi Emeritus of Temple Beth El, the oldest Jewish congregation in Michigan. Syme, is a transcending voice for multi-racial justice, who was inducted in 2010 into the Martin Luther King Jr. International Board of Preachers at Morehouse College is one of the most revered voices in the Jewish community in Michigan. 

Lifestyle magazine’s readers once voted Syme one of the 18 North American Jews “who will be most influential in shaping the future of the Jewish community in the 21^st Century,” draws on his life’s experiences to bring compassion, caring and determination that accomplishments alone cannot convey.

Rabbi Syme’s intense drive has led to numerous accomplishments as both an author and executive television producer.  He is a published author or co-author of 24 books, on topics such as Jewish parenting, youth suicide prevention, Christian-Jewish relations, Jewish social action, ritual, theology and Jewish education.

Rabbi Syme sits on the boards of numerous organizations including the Detroit Economic Club. He was one of the first chairmen of the Coalition for the Advancement of Jewish Education, a board member of the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture, the Executive Boards of the National Council for Jewish Education, and the Ecumenical Institute, and was Co-Chairman of the Coalition for Jewish Unity. He was honored as a Knight of Charity by the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (P.I.M.E. Missionaries) in 1997. He also served on the board of the Patrons of the Arts in the Vatican Museums and Humble Design and continues his work in suicide prevention.  In 2012, he was presented with the Community Leadership Award by the American Jewish Committee and in 2019, was designated a “Distinguished Warrior” by the Detroit Urban League.

Rabbi Syme is the founder of the Single Soul Suicide Prevention program of Jewish Family Service. 

John Mogk,  a leading expert on land use and urban development, is a professor of law at Wayne State University Law School, where he is also the chair of the Levin Center at Wayne Law Faculty Committee.

Following graduation with distinction from The University of Michigan Law School in 1964, where he served on the law review and was elected a member of the Order of the Coif, Professor Mogk practiced law with Shearman & Sterling in New York City. In addition to corporate law and litigation, his practice included providing legal counsel to the pioneering program revitalizing the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York.

He joined the Wayne Law faculty in 1968, one year after Detroit’s major civil disturbance, to focus upon critical issues facing America’s distressed urban communities. His work has included research, teaching and engagement in the field of urban law and policy on such issues as economic development, neighborhood rehabilitation and intergovernmental cooperation. Professor Mogk frequently contributes editorial commentary on critical urban issues to the major media outlets.

He joined the Wayne Law faculty in 1968, one year after Detroit’s major civil disturbance, to focus upon critical issues facing America’s distressed urban communities. His work has included research, teaching and engagement in the field of urban law and policy on such issues as economic development, neighborhood rehabilitation and intergovernmental cooperation. Professor Mogk frequently contributes editorial commentary on critical urban issues to the major media outlets.

He has received special commendations from the Michigan Legislature and Detroit Common Council and was selected Outstanding Professor by the law school student body in 1979, 1983 and 1994, 1997, 2003 and 2016 by the alumni in 1993. Professor Mogk was named one of the Ten Outstanding Young Men in the Unites States (U.S. Jaycees) in 1973.

He teaches courses in Property, State and Local Government Law, Land Use Planning, and Urban Development. Professor Mogk was a visiting fellow at the University of Warwick in England during 1985-86, and the University of Utrecht, the Netherlands, in 2001. He has served as editor of the Michigan International Lawyer, published by the State Bar of Michigan, and a member of the State Bar’s Land Title Standards Committee.

Dr. Massood Omrani is a lecturer in the MBA Program at Lawrence Technological University in Southfield. He is also the managing director of CADFEM Americas, Inc., a European engineering consulting company in the U.S. He has worked in different industries for over 30 years as a Technical & Business Manager in companies such as Schulmbergere, Ford, Magna, ESI and CADFEM. He obtained his B.S., M.S. & Ph.D. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from State University of New York at Buffalo and then later obtained his MBA from Michigan State University. At The PuLSE Institute, Omrani will contribute columns and analyses about how Wall Street should be an ally in the fight against poverty.

Samuel Bagenstos, the Frank G. Millard Professor of Law at the University of Michigan, where he specializes in constitutional and civil rights litigation. From 2009 to 2011, he was a political appointee in the U.S. Department of Justice, where he served as the principal deputy assistant attorney general for civil rights, the No. 2 official in the Civil Rights Division. His accomplishments included the promulgation of the 2010 Americans with Disabilities Act regulations—the first comprehensive update of those regulations since they were first promulgated in 1991—and the reinvigoration of the Civil Rights Division’s enforcement of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Olmstead v. L.C., which guarantees people with disabilities the right to live and receive services in the most integrated setting appropriate. He led the negotiations of significant Olmstead settlements with the states of Delaware and Georgia, which guarantee appropriate, community-based services to thousands of people with disabilities. He also personally argued major cases in federal district courts and courts of appeals.

Pursuant to an appointment by Gov. Whitmer, he serves as chair of the Michigan Employment Relations Commission, the state agency that enforces the rights of public employees to unionize and collectively bargain.

As an academic, Professor Bagenstos has published articles in journals such as the Yale Law Journal, the Stanford Law Review, the Columbia Law Review, the California Law Review, the Virginia Law Review, the Cornell Law Review, the Georgetown Law Journal, and many others. He also has published two books: Law and the Contradictions of the Disability Rights Movement(Yale University Press, 2009) and Disability Rights Law: Cases and Materials (Foundation Press, 2010), and he has written articles for non-academic audiences in publications such as Democracy: A Journal of Ideas, The American Prospect, The Washington Monthly, and The New Republic.

Professor Bagenstos frequently consults with civil rights organizations and remains an active appellate and U.S. Supreme Court litigator in civil rights and federalism cases. He has argued four cases before the Supreme Court, including Young v. United Parcel Service, 135 S. Ct 1338 (2015), which established new protections for pregnant workers, and United States v. Georgia, 546 U.S. 151 (2006), which upheld, as applied to his client’s case, the constitutionality of Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Professor Bagenstos also has testified before Congress on several occasions, including in support of the Fair Pay Restoration Act, the ADA Amendments Act, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, as well as on the application of the ADA to advancing technology and the problem of mental illness in prisons.

Prior to joining the Michigan Law faculty, Professor Bagenstos was a professor of law and, from 2007 to 2008, also associate dean for research and faculty development at Washington University School of Law. He has been on the faculty of Harvard Law School and was a visiting professor at UCLA School of Law. He clerked for the Hon. Stephen Reinhardt on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit for one year, then joined the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. Following that position, he served as a law clerk for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg of the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1993, Professor Bagenstos earned his JD, magna cum laude, from Harvard, where he received the Fay Diploma and was articles office co-chair of the Harvard Law Review. He received his BA, with highest honors and highest distinction, from the University of North Carolina.

Dorothea Williams-Arnold, a Detroit native and lifelong resident, teaches English Language Arts at Cass Technical High, a public high school located in midtown Detroit. She holds an Associate degree of Applied Science from Wayne County Community College, with a major in Occupational Therapy; Bachelor of Science from Eastern Michigan University, with a major in Literature, Language and Writing for Teachers and a Minor in Fine Art; and a Master of Arts in English Literature from Marygrove College. Though Dorothea has experience teaching composition to college students as an adjunct instructor at Baker College, her passion is in the high school classroom. In her 14 plus years teaching, she has dedicated much of her time advocating for holistic instructional practices that foster high student achievement, community engagement and student leadership

Her vocational strengths and accomplishments are in designing instructional plans that groom students for advanced coursework in rhetoric and composition. She has been instrumental in increasing both the percentages of students at Cass Tech who make significant improvement in 10^th grade PSAT scores, and the percentages of those that go on to pass the 11^th grade AP exams in Language and Composition. Dorothea is an advocate for open-door access to advanced courses for urban and rural students even if their composition mastery is emerging.  

Dorothea has been successfully developing instructional approaches rooted in critical pedagogy and encouraging more widespread use of this methodology in underserved schools.  Her focus on encouraging students to critically examine oppressive social practices has yielded improved student engagement and outcomes. She is an advocate for teaching literary and critical theory to adolescents through written composition and Socratic discussion, as a means of equipping them to effectively negotiate multiple academic and social platforms. Her philosophy and approaches are specifically designed to equip students in her underserved classrooms to engage in activities that encourage high achievement, leadership, and community engagement.  

In the last 15 years, she has been actively involved in community building in Detroit, particularly with her organizational work in her own neighborhood, the Robert Aviation Subdivision. Her contributions include block-club development and aligning neighborhood community organizations towards common goals. An avid gardener, Dorothea has also been instrumental in continuing the tradition of the neighborhood elders by maintaining and expanding the local community garden that was established by them decades ago. 

She has assisted in writing grant applications for beautification and inter-generational community activities, fostered community engagement and organized efforts to provide lawn care and snow removal for residents in need.  Through her block club, she has provided tutoring for young members of the neighborhood church. She has also been active in helping to build relationships with district representatives and law enforcement to better address residents’ needs, which has helped to create a more stable community of engaged residents.

Premilla Nadasen is a Professor of History at Columbia University and at Barnard College. She is a graduate of the University of Michigan, where she was involved in the anti-apartheid and anti-racist student movement in the 1980s. She has been researching and writing about social policy and women of color feminism for over 20 years.  She is president of the National Women’s Studies Association and was a 2018-2019 Fulbright Visiting Professor to Oxford University.

Nadasen is an award-winning author.  Her most recent book, Household Worker Unite: The Untold Story of African American Women Who Built a Movement examines how African American domestic workers in the U.S. strategically used storytelling to form a political identity and through their organizing reshaped the landscape of labor organizing.  Her first book, Welfare Warriors: The Welfare Rights Movement in the United States (Routledge 2005), outlines the ways in which African American women on welfare forged a feminism of their own out of the political and cultural circumstances of the late 1960s and 1970s. She is currently writing a biography of South African singer and anti-apartheid activist Miriam Makeba.

Nadasen has written for numerous scholarly and popular on-line and print outlets and given public talks about immigration, labor history, African-American history, welfare policy, and community organizing. She co-directs with Celia Naylor a working group on Transnational Black Feminisms. She has consulted for the New York Historical Society, the Tenement Museum in New York, the Museum of the City of New York, and Hull House in Chicago and wrote a personal narrative for a Guggenheim walking tour of Jackson Heights, Queens.

Nadasen has been engaged with community and campus activism for many years, including anti-racist, feminist, and anti-apartheid organizing.  She has an abiding interest in democratization, political empowerment of the poor, and movements for social justice, with a particular focus on women of color. She is member of Scholars for Social Justice and has bridged academic and activist work by making her scholarly work accessible to people outside of the university. She served as expert witness before the New York State Assembly Committee on Labor as well as the federal Department of Labor and wrote a policy brief titled “Valuing Domestic Work” for the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA). She has collaborated with the Mississippi Low-Income Child Care Initiative, Damayan Migrant Workers Association, and the NDWA’s “We Dream in Black” project to mobilize Black domestic workers.

William T. Riley, a veteran law enforcement official is the police chief of Inkster, Michigan. Prior to taking his post in Inkster in 2015, Riley, was the police chief in Selma, Alabama, the cradle of the civil rights movement from 2008-2015. He is a graduate of St. Paul’s College in Lawrenceville, Virginia as well as the Hampton Roads Regional Law Enforcement Training Academy. He’s participated in many high level police executive trainings including the Mid-Atlantic/Supervisory Institute for Police Management at the Christopher Newport University, the Administrative Officers Management Program at North Carolina State University and the Senior Management Institute for Police Executive Research Forum at Boston University. He was also in charge of the Office of Professional Standards and Training/Recruiting Division at the Newport News Police Department earlier in his career. 

Riley is a member of many professional organizations including the Selma-Dallas County Leadership, Alabama Association of Chiefs of Police (AACOP), International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), Administrative Officers Management Program (AOMP) , Police Executive Research Forum (PERF), National Organization of Black Law Enforcement (NOBLE), Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity  and the Police Benevolence Association (PBA).

Aside from his law enforcement assignments, Riley is also involved in many community-oriented activities including serving on the boards of organizations that are serving vulnerable populations such as the Detroit Wayne Mental Health Authority, which is now known as the Detroit Wayne Integrated Health Network (DWIHN) where he serves on the Board of Directors. He chairs the Recipient Rights Committee and sits on the Substance Use Disorders (SUD). DWIHN manages and provides integrated mental health and Substance abuse treatment for the entire Detroit and Wayne County area. 

A forward thinker, Riley, is an outspoken advocate for police transformation to root out racism and bias in law enforcement. He is a major proponent for reforming the nation’s bail system that holds many people who are poor and disenfranchised hostage in jail for non-violent crimes. 

Bob Ezumah, a former Export Promotion and Business Development Manager with United States Agency for International Development (USAID) NEXTT Project, is Logistics Manager at multinational corporation GEA Systems North America (GEA Group) where he is responsible for supply chain logistics and trade compliance issues.

An MBA alum of the well regarded American Intercontinental University, Bob is well recognized supply chain logistics and trade compliance expert whose passion and performance sit at the intersection of value creation and poverty alleviation. Bob is also a certified training consultant from the Certified Training Consultants Institute, Ball State University who has provided training on pro bono basis to underserved communities

“Trade if done right can lift many people out of poverty, but if done wrong can deepen and widen inequities” posits Bob who holds a certificate from Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) at Harvard University. Bob’s professional experience includes work and research on the intersection of global trade and livelihoods, and he continues to be a passionate advocate for free fair and sustainable trade policy. He is an expert in international trade and development who is well sought after with several professional certificates in business management and communication from Opus School of Business, University of Saint Thomas.

He is also an active member of many top professional associations that include APICS association of supply chain management, Washington International Trade Association, Society for International Development. Bob also has several top industry certifications in global trade which includes Certified Classification Specialist, Certified Export Controls and Compliance Specialist.

Bob has advised and coached diverse business leaders in different parts of the world on business development and strategic management. He has also provided technical assistance and capacity building to several local, regional, and national governments on economic growth strategies, export promotion and development.