User:HasshanBatts/sandbox

Dr. Hasshan Batts
Dr. Hasshan Batts is an African American tri-sector thought leader, author, public speaker, community epidemiologist, prison survivor and national champion, and community-based participatory research scholar-activist for prison reentry, trauma-informed care, health equity, restorative practices, historical trauma, and community engagement.

Batts is the Executive Director of Promise Neighborhoods of Lehigh Valley, a Black-led, antiracist, women-centered, liberation-based grassroots organization focused on healing and wellness, and Founder and President of the Prison Survivors Network. Batts is also appointed by Governor Tom Wolf as a Commissioner on African American Affairs, is Inaugural Chair of Mayor Matt Tuerk’s Commission on African American Affairs and a Rider-Pool Foundation Collective Impact Fellow. Dr. Batts is also the co-chair of the Governor's Commission public safety and gun violence committee, hosts the WDIY and NPR podcast Let’s Talk , and co-edited Beyond Equity and Inclusion in Conflict Resolution: Recentering the Profession , a powerful and scholarly book that addresses issues of systemic racism and oppression in the field of conflict resolution.

As a prison survivor, healer, son, father, grandfather, brother, husband, neighbor, and friend, Batts offers the unique perspective of a content and context expert with lived experience. He works as well as a practitioner, nonprofit administrator, and community-based participatory researcher, and he incorporates trauma-informed care, restorative practices, reentry, community engagement, and collective impact in his work. Batts works to uplift the voices of those most impacted, who possess the intimate and creative solutions that are often ignored. His work has been featured on CNN, Fox News , NPR , and numerous news outlets, documentaries, and an anthology published in 2008 by Syracuse press , he has lectured across the African diaspora regarding the experiences of Africans in America, the prison industrial complex, and health inequities.

Early Life
Batts was raised in Crown Heights Brooklyn, NY at the height of the crack epidemic by his maternal grandmother Virgina Mims and his mother Janice Batts, a Black Panther and Register Nurse that instilled in him and his brother Omar a sense of love and pride for his Black community. Batts experienced adverse childhood experiences that manifested in behavioral challenges in his early schooling. Batts was retained in kindergarten and 7th grade, was expelled from Bishop Loughlin High School, Boys and Girls High School , and Boys High in Brooklyn , and was incarcerated in the Brutal Spotford Juvenile Detention Center in the Bronx. By 15 Batts had over a dozen arrests and was incarcerated in the Manhattan House of Detention with adult inmates. Batts absconded to the Poconos, Pennsylvania at 16 years old and attended Jim Thorpe High School where he was pushed out and continued his journey of the school to prison pipeline.

Batts later returned to school and achieved his GED. After completing his GED, he has been mentored by Dr. William R Jones, SY Bowland, Imam Salahudin Hasan, Dr. Onaje Muid and Dr. Sirry Alang met who inspired him to go back to school and change systems and lives.

Education and Career:
Batts received a joint MSW from North Carolina A&T and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, a doctorate in Health Sciences, a post-graduate certificate in Global Health from Nova Southeastern University in Florida , and a scholarship to Harvard Business School's Strategic Perspectives in Nonprofit management program. He was an adjunct professor at Lenoir Rhyne University, Lincoln University a historically Black college and university, and Lehigh University. He is a distinguished Robert Wood Johnson Culture of Health Leader and has been awarded Post-Doctoral research fellowships at Lehigh University and Practitioners Research and Scholarship Institute. In addition, he was awarded a collective impact fellowship through the Rider-Pool Foundation.

Hasshan is a former board member of the National Association for Community Mediation, Mediation Network of North Carolina, and Victim Offender Mediation Association.

Publications:
Batts, Hasshan (2022). Beyond Equity and Inclusion in Conflict Resolution

Batts, Hasshan (2008). Re-Centering Culture and Knowledge in Conflict Resolution Practice

References:
https://wlvr.org/2021/06/gov-wolf-invites-the-head-of-promise-neighborhoods-of-the-lehigh-valley-to-join-the-state-commission-on-african-american-affairs/#.Yt3KeqjMLIX

https://www.middlebury.edu/institute/people/hasshan-batts

https://rider.pooltrust.org/batts-named-robert-wood-johnson-foundation-culture-of-health-leader/

https://cultureofhealth-leaders.org/meettheleaders/hasshan-batts/

https://www.wfmz.com/news/give-me-shelter-perspectives-on-youth-violence/video_09096d29-69db-5ccc-a978-2ad6b755a6b1.htm

https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2020/politics/allentown-pennsylvania-race-2020-election/

https://www.ted.com/talks/dr_hasshan_batts_radical_welcome_heals

https://www.npr.org/podcasts/1078317363/let-s-talk

https://www.wdiy.org/people/hasshan-batts

https://confsa.eventsair.com/22nd-biennial-conference-of-the-international-consortium-for-social-development/