Cornel West

CORNEL WEST is Class of 1943 University Professor of Religion at Princeton University and senior advisor to the “Hidden Brain Drain” task force. Prior to his appointment at Princeton, he was the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor at Harvard University teaching Afro-American Studies and Philosophy of Religion. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., chairman of Harvard’s Department of Afro-American Studies, describes Dr. West as “one of America’s most important public intellectuals, and a formidable scholar by any measure.” He has taught at Yale, Union Theological Seminary and Princeton University where he was director of the Program in African American Studies. A well-respected speaker and authority on issues of race and religion, he was part of President Clinton’s National Conversation on Race initiative. Recently, he was the W.E.B. Du Bois Lecturer at Harvard. He is coauthor of “Leadership in Your Midst: Tapping the Hidden Strengths of Minority Executives” in the November issue of the Harvard Business Review. Dr. West is a frequent media commentator; appearances have included Nightline, Good Morning America, The Today Show, CNN Talk, ABC World News Tonight and Charlie Rose. Dr. West is the author of numerous articles and books including Prophetic Fragments, The Cornel West Reader, the best-seller, Race Matters, The War Against Parents (co-authored with Sylvia Ann Hewlett), and Democracy Matters. Dr. West is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard with an M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Princeton