Dr. Troy Harden has over 25 years experience serving and consulting in social service,educational and community settings. Troy is the recently appointed Director of the Race and Ethnic Studies Institute and Professor of Practice in Sociology at Texas A&M University. Dr. Harden formerly served as the Director of Northeastern Illinois University’s Master of Social Work Program, where he was also an Associate Professor. Dr. Harden has worked as a clinician, administrator, educator, activist and community practitioner concerning community issues in diverse settings. His on-going research interests are in racial equity, community violence, and trauma and traditional and non-traditional interventions within community and organizational settings. He is currently lead designer for the Metropolitan Peace Academy, an effort to develop certification for street outreach workers addressing violence in Chicago. He is the lead researcher with the Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Assistance’s Community-based Crime Reduction Grant in Englewood, TIME 21:36, partnering with the Englewood Public Safety Task Force. He has served as a consultant with such diverse institutions as the City of Chicago, the Latino Policy Forum, Chicago Public Schools, Fathers, Families, and Healthy Communities, the Pan African Association, the Illinois African American Coalition for Prevention, Burrell Communications, and Cook County’s Project Brotherhood, a Men’s Health Clinic. community violence, and trauma and traditional and non-traditional interventions within community and organizational settings. He is currently lead designer for the Metropolitan Peace Academy, an effort to develop certification for street outreach workers addressing violence in Chicago. He is the lead researcher with the Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Assistance’s Community-based Crime Reduction Grant in Englewood, TIME 21:36, partnering with the Englewood Public Safety Task Force. He has served as a consultant with such diverse institutions as the City of Chicago, the Latino Policy Forum, the African American Policy and Leadership Institute, the Woods Fund, the Latino Policy Forum, Chicago Public Schools, Fathers, Families, and Healthy Communities, the Pan African Association, the Illinois African American Coalition for Prevention and Burrell Communications, concerning the development of Cook County’s Project Brotherhood, a Men’s Health Clinic.