About

Mission

The mission of Institute for African Man Development is to reconnect African-American Men and Boys to the covenants of MAAT which are: Love, Truth, Justice, Balance, Reciprocity, Order, Harmony, and Righteousness, thereby helping African-American Men and Boys live their lives in a more naturally, purposeful, abundant and responsible manner.

History

Institute for African Man Development (IAMD) is an offspring of Marshall & Associates Inc., which was a for-profit mental health consulting group that was formed in 1995. Institute for African Man development Inc. is a 501 3 (c) agency which was incorporated in 2002. IAMD was incorporated to seek opportunities to serve the city’s low-income populations through the use of public and private funding sources. Located in Washington DC, the agency was formed to address the paucity of social services that directly support the development of African-American Men and Boys. The uniqueness of the Institute is found in its focus on development as opposed to amelioration of pathology.

History

Philosophy

We believe that most African-American Men and Boys are not imperiled and are seeking the life victory that often eludes them. The tendency to focus only on the problem areas as opposed to the areas of victory creates a grossly distorted picture of the real struggles facing African-American Men and Boys. The more damaging reality is that most interventions towards African-American Men and Boys are grounded in this distorted picture. We build our programs based on the model victory of African-American Men and Boys who are not imperiled. We offer a corrective emotional experience through supportive relationships and expert services. Institute for African-Man Development possesses the expertise necessary to reach out to and ultimately create healing with young African-American Men and Boys.

Founder & President

CHESTER MARSHALL, MSW, LICSW, LCSW-C

Chester has more than 33 years’ experience in providing social services, program development, and management in various settings including child welfare, therapeutic communities, and private practice. He began his work in 1981 in Chicago Illinois where he was part of the inaugural staff at Imani House, a shelter for neglected and abused boys.

Chester has helped to develop successful social services programs targeting African-American Men and Boys in the DC and Chicago areas including: mental health, rites of passage, therapeutic-based milieus and training curriculums. He brings a wealth of executive management and board leadership expertise to the organization.

In 2010, Chester was appointed by D.C. Congresswomen, Eleanor Holmes Norton to serve as a commissioner on the Congressional Commission on Black Men and Boys. He is also a commissioner on Washington DC Mayor Muriel Bowser’ Commission on African American Men, Boys and Fathers.

Chester received his bachelor’s degree in psychology from Grace College and his Master of Social Work from Howard University where is currently an adjunct professor of Social Work. He is certified in Clinical Hypnosis and Neuro-Linguistic Programming and is a certified NTU psychotherapist. He also holds a certificate in Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy from the Albert Ellis School in New York and is a graduate of the National Association of Black Social Workers (NABSW) Academy of African-Centered Social Work.

Known for his dynamism and ability to connect with and engage audiences, Chester has presented at many conferences and public forums and is frequently invited as a keynote speaker. He has been a regular guest speaker on various television shows including Howard Television, Africa News Vision, CNN and the popular BET.

Chester is the author of Black Man Heal: Volume I: A Resource Manual for the Healing and Uplifting of African Men and Boys; Black Man Heal Volume II: The Blueprint for Healing Disconnected African American Men and Boys; and Lies by the Numbers: The Negative Imaging of African-American Men and Boys through the Use and Misuse of Statistics. He has also written countless working papers, articles, and curriculums on the subject of developing African-American Men and Boys.

Board of Directors

Board Chair

Carl Hampton, Psy.D

Dr. Carl J. Hampton is a results-oriented human service professional with 35 years of experience in clinical service delivery. His specialty is the integration of spiritual orientation into clinical practice. He has worked in community-based programs, institutional and private environments. He is also a provider of services in program systems development. Dr. Hampton brings to his work on the planet the results of his own unique spiritual journey that has inspired the professional integration of the disciples of psychology and spirituality.

Dr. Hampton holds a doctorate in Clinical Psychology and is currently the CEO/Chief Psychologist for The Hampton Group, LLC. The Hampton Group, LLC, formally known as K&M Consultants, Inc., is a human services corporation, established in 1999 by Dr. Hampton, with the aim of helping individuals, families and systems to maximize their resources and capacities, enhance relationships, resolve personal trauma, grief and loss, and successfully interface and navigate their environments.

Dr. Hampton has developed a highly regarded clinical approach based on a unique philosophy devised over the years of his doctoral training in Clinical Psychology, a 30 year membership within the Association of Black Psychologist and a 25 year professional career leading African-Centered Human Service Agency. The approach is competency-based, culturally-driven and spiritually universal. The universality of the approach has allowed his organization to develop culturally-competent programs to meet the needs of individuals, families and groups regardless of ethnicity. Dr. Hampton is culturally sagacious but diverse in his clinical approach, method and technique”.

Dr. Hampton has worked in many capacities including: proposal writing, program development, service delivery, in-service training, and clinical training for external populations. He has provided professional development and clinical supervision for doctoral level practicum/internship students from local Ph.D./Psy.D Clinical or Counseling Psychology programs for over 20 years. Dr. Hampton has been employed as a Clinical Director, Chief Psychologist, Supervisor/Director for a number of projects and programs, which serviced individuals and families in the Washington, DC and Baltimore metropolitan areas.

In addition to his many years of successful expertise in clinical services and executive management, Dr. Hampton brings 10 years of board leadership of social services organizations, charter school boards, and corporate entities across the country.

Sage

W. Henry Gregory, Jr. Ph.D.

Henry Gregory, Jr. Ph.D. is a mental health professional with over thirty-five years of experience. He holds a doctoral degree in Clinical Psychology and master degrees in Community Mental Health and Psychology. He has expertise and extensive experience as a clinician, educator, trainer, consultant and researcher in a number of service areas including substance abuse, HIV/AIDS, criminal justice, juvenile justice, child welfare, school-based mental health, and behavioral health.

Currently, Dr. Gregory is an assistant professor at the University of Maryland, School of Nursing. He also serves as the associate director for the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) Department of Psychology’s Center for Community Collaboration. In addition, he is the cultural competence coordinator for MD CARES, a federally (SAMSHA) funded System of Care for youth and families experiencing emotional and behavioral challenges.

Dr. Gregory provides consultation and training to public and private agencies and direct services to individuals and families through his own organization, the Rafiki Consortium, LLC. Through Rafiki, he focuses on assisting service providers, policymakers, family members and other stakeholders in understanding and implementing skills, attitudes and treatment/service models that are culturally competent and grounded in a competency orientation toward promoting change.

Dr. Gregory passionately believes that we create our own destiny by how we think about ourselves and our circumstance. To this end, he believes that a focus on strengths, competencies and resilience will revolutionize the field of mental health.

In addition to his many years of successful expertise in clinical services and executive management, Dr. Gregory brings many years of board leadership of social services organizations and corporate entities across the country.

Sage

Leonard G. Dunston, MSW

Leonard G. Dunston is Vice President of Preudhomme, G, Dunston and Associates, a consulting and management training firm. Leonard is also the former Commissioner of the New York State Division for Youth (now known as the Office of Children and Family Services), a position he held for an agency-record twelve years prior to retiring in 1995 after 29 years of public service. He has served three New York City Mayors, and two Governors (Governor James B. Hunt in North Carolina and Governor Mario M. Cuomo in New York). During Governor Cuomo’s tenure, Leonard served as Commissioner of the New York State Division for Youth where he managed a budget of over $250 million, 3,500 employees, 140 office buildings and institutions and chaired or participated in over 60 Boards, Commissions, State and National Associations. Additionally, he is President Emeritus of the National Association of Black Social Workers, Inc., of which he served as National President from 1994 to 1998.
Leonard has appeared on over 40 national television programs including “Nightline”, CNN, C-SPAN, and nationally syndicated “Night Talk”, Bev Smith, and Sharp Talk radio talk shows. As a highly respected national and international speaker, he has given over 400 public speeches, including commencement addresses, and is the recipient of over 300 plagues/citations. He has also facilitated numerous training seminars, been a panelist on Congressional and countless other varied panels. Leonard has traveled and lectured extensively in various countries in Africa, the Caribbean and Canada. During his trip as president of NABSW in August 1998 to the Republic of Benin, West Africa, His Excellency President Mathieu Kerekou granted Head of State status to Leonard during the country’s 38th anniversary of independence. He has been featured in Ebony and Ebony Man magazines, The New York Times, USA Today, numerous local newspapers and journals. He is also the recipient of over 300 awards, citations, and keys to cities. He has also lectured on social and political issues at sixteen colleges and universities.

On October 15, 1995, he was a featured speaker and organizer at the historic Million Man March in Washington, D.C., and he helped to organize the December 2001 State of the Black World Conference in Atlanta, GA, the 2008 State of the Black World Conference/Black Family Summit in New Orleans, LA, where he was a featured speaker at both conferences. On October 14, 2005 at Howard University, Leonard co-convened, with the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, the Million More Movement Black Family Summit of 35 Black national organizations in support of families displaced by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Leonard is also a founding member of the National Black Independent Political Party, founding member Coalition of Black Trade Unions, an executive board member of the Institute of the Black World 21st Century, and Convener of The IBW/Black Family Summit, Board Member The Harvest Institute, a member of the Litigation Committee of the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (N’COBRA), a board member of the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS, a board member of the All Healers Mental Health Alliance, and a lifetime member of the NAACP.

Leonard graduated from Livingstone College in North Carolina with a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and Secondary Education. He was inducted into Livingstone’s Hall of Fame in 2002. He also received a Master of Social Work Administration degree from Hunter College School of Social Work in New York. Leonard is most proud of his 50-plus years of marriage to the former Gladys Sapp and his two children. Lenny, as friends and family fondly call him, is firmly rooted in the philosophy that is best summarized by the African proverb: “Working together, the ants ate the elephant.”

Sage

Anyika Nkululeko, MSW

Anyika Nkululeko is the Founder and Owner Sankofa Video Productions, in Oakland, California. Through Sankofa he has become an awarding-winning Producer, Director, Cameraman, Editor, and Scriptwriter of several feature videos including the enormously popular: “From Ma’at to Maafa to Sankofa. His other popular work includes an audio-visual workshop/training curriculum entitled: “From Ma’at to Maafa to Sankofa: Utilizing Afrikan-Centered Methods to Heal Afrikan People” which is a nationally utilized curriculum for social service training, program development, and service delivery.

Anyika is also currently the coordinator of the Joint Decision-Making Group for the Santa Clara County, Social Services Agency, Department of Family & Children’s Services, in San Jose, California. Over his 30 plus years of social services, Anyika has amassed an incredible wealth of experience, wisdom, and knowledge in clinical services delivery, program management, and program development in a broad range of service areas including: Child-Welfare, Mental Health, Residential Care, School Systems, and Advocacy groups.

Anyika holds B.A. degree in Psychology from Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia and Masters of Social Work from San Jose State University in San Jose California. He has also done Doctoral work in Community-Clinical Psychology at the University of California-Berkeley.

He brings many years of effective board leadership of grassroots organizations such as National Association Of Black Social Workers, Inc. Washington DC, Bay Area Association Of Black Social Workers, Oakland, California, Institute For The Collective Afrikan Consciousness, Atlanta, Georgia and The Collective Black Mind, Atlanta, Georgia.

Legal Advisor

Rodney Mitchell, Esq.

Rodney is a native of Washington, DC and a proud product of DC Public Schools. He is also a former high school and college student-athlete whose athletic and academic career was interrupted as a result of bad decisions, peer pressure and lack of information. As a result, Rodney experienced first-hand, incarceration, gangs, and violence on the streets of Washington, DC and Los Angeles, CA. After many hard lessons, Rodney went back to school, studying journalism and political science at Pasadena City College, Pasadena, California. While at Pasadena City College, Rodney organized students who were former gang members to form an organization (Minds of Melanin) to fight gang violence in Los Angeles. Minds of Melanin held street-corner protests where murders had taken place to bring awareness and information to the community.

He later went on to study African American Studies and Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley graduating with high honors. While attending Berkeley, Rodney worked with the Alameda County Probation Juvenile Division. Rodney ran support groups; did home and school visits for juveniles recently released from incarceration. He then went on to law school and graduated from George Washington University law school in Washington, DC. While at GW Law, Rodney worked with the POPS Program, advocating for the humanitarian and medical release of elderly and infirm state and federal prisoners.

After law school, Rodney launched his career in public interest law and policy with the DC Criminal Justice Coordinating Council, focusing on criminal justice reform and specifically, prisoner reentry. He also served as the Executive Director in the DC Office on Ex-Offender Affairs. Prior, he served as the Coordinator of the DC. Public Defender Service’s Community Reentry Program where he ran programs that assisted disconnected District residents navigate the prisoner, reentry process. Rodney also served as the reentry coordinator for the District of Columbia Department of Corrections, where he developed programs and systems to assist men and women leaving the DC Jail. Rodney currently facilitates the “Men’s Group” support program for the DC District Federal Courts, for men recently released from the Federal Bureau of Prisons. He also conducts an annual reentry workshop for women being released from the Maximum Security Women’s facility in Jessup, Maryland.

In 2008, he founded the non-profit organization, Reentry Legal Services that assists clients with the legal, collateral consequences after incarceration. More recently, he launched, Executive Reentry Solutions and P.R.O.S. (Professional Responsibility in Organized Sports). Along with reentry law, he has a civil practice under the Law Office of Rodney C. Mitchell and practices in the DC Superior Court and the DC District Federal Court. Recently, Rodney was appointed by DC Congresswomen, Eleanor Holmes Norton to serve as a commissioner on the DC Congressional Commission on Black Men and Boys.

Staff

Executive Director

Robyn Meredith

Robyn Meredith is Executive Director at the Institute for African Man Development Inc. She received her Bachelors of Science Degree in Rehabilitation Services with a special concentration in Alcohol Drug Education and Rehabilitation Services from Virginia State University. She received her Masters Degree in Social Work with a concentration in Mental Health from Howard University.

Meredith has a broad range of practice experience including: Substance Abuse Services, Domestic Violence, Child Welfare, Mental Health, and HIV & AIDS. She is also a nationally certified Parenting Trainer and Family Group Conference and Family Team Meeting Facilitator. She is a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker in the District of Columbia and the state of Maryland.

Over the past 15 years she has excelled in executive management as the Deputy Director at Foundations for Home & Community; a Treatment Foster Care Agency in the District of Columbia and the Deputy Director at Health Services for Children with Special Needs in Washington DC. Before coming to IAMD, she was the Chief Operating Officer and Executive Director at NYA Mental Health Center in Washington DC.

Human Resources Manager

Char‘Dae Barbour

Char’Dae Barbour is the Human Resources Manager at the Institute for African Man Development Inc. She has provided HR support in diverse settings including: corporate mental health, and medical. Before coming to IAMD, she was an HR Manager at Inova Health Care systems, which is one of the largest Health Care corporations in the US.

Lead Therapist

Cortez Scott

Corez Scott is the Lead Therapist at the Institute for African Man Development Inc. He is an Administrator at the Department of Behavioral Health in Washington DC, which oversees the provision of mental health services across the city. He has more than 20 years’ experience providing clinical services to African-American Men and Boys. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Social Work from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana and a Masters of Social Work from University in Chicago. He is a licensed Clinical Social Worker in Washington DC.

Fatherhood Coordinator

Rodney Brice

Rodney Brice is the Fatherhood Coordinator at the Institute for African Man Development. He is a Certified Fatherhood Master Trainer and a Certified Family Life Coach from the National Partnership for Community Leadership and Responsible Fatherhood He coordinates all Fatherhood activity at IAMD including facilitating fatherhood training and support groups and assisting men and boys with employment opportunities.

Senior Researcher

Dr. Katrina Floyd

Dr. Katrina Floyd is a licensed Social Worker and Doctor of Public Health. She currently serves as the Director of the MSW Online Program for Howard University School of Social Work. She has more than thirty years of experience helping families and individuals facilitate positive change to improve their lives. Born and raised in Washington, DC, she is a change agent and passionate about working with marginalized populations and communities. Dr. Floyd’s expertise includes conducting research related to social justice issues and behavioral health practices impacting black men and boys.

Dr. Floyd earned her Master of Social Work degree from Howard University School of Social Work and a Doctor of Public Health from George Washington University. She is an innovative and creative human services administrator with more than 25 years of directing programs that serve vulnerable populations. Dr. Floyd’s professional career includes mentoring and coaching graduate students as an adjunct professor with Howard University School of Social Work and the University of Southern California, Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work, Virtual Academic Center.