Shawn Ginwright

Shawn Ginwright is the Jerome T. Murphy Professor of Practice at Harvard Graduate School of Education, where his work focuses on trauma, healing, and empowering African American youth. With an acute focus on the challenges faced by urban youth in navigating poverty and striving for equality and justice, and his introduction of the concept of "healing-centered engagement," Ginwright's research has been instrumental in reshaping the discourse surrounding youth development. Ginwright is also the co-founder and chief executive officer of Flourish Agenda, Inc., a research lab and consulting firm dedicated to unlocking the power of healing and empowering youth of color, as well as their adult allies, to drive transformative change in their schools and communities.

Prior to joining HGSE, Ginwright was a faculty member in the Africana Studies Department and College of Education at San Francisco State University for 19 years. He was also the chairman of the board for the California Endowment from 2019 to 2022, overseeing a $5 billion endowment dedicated to improving the health of underserved communities. He currently serves on the advisory board for the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning at the Jonathan Tisch College of Civic Life at Tufts University. Ginwright was awarded the Fulbright Senior Specialist award from the U.S. State Department in 2011.

Ginwright has authored several books, including The Four Pivots: Reimagining Justice, Reimagining Ourselves, Hope and Healing in Urban Education: How Urban Activists and Teachers Are Reclaiming Matters of the Heart, Black Youth Rising: Activism and Radical Healing in Urban America, and Black in School: Afrocentric Reform, Urban Youth, and the Promise of Hip-Hop Culture. He also co-edited the volume Beyond Resistance! Youth Activism and Community Change: New Democratic Possibilities for Practice and Policy for America's Youth.