Muntu Matsimela
Revson Fellow 2004-2005
Producer-Coordinator
Special Broadcasts and Events, WBAI- Pacifica Radio, 99.5 FM
Muntu Matsimela has been a community activist and organizer for more than thirty years, working in the areas of healthcare, housing, tenants’ rights, student issues, criminal justice, prison reform, and labor. As a national and international human rights activist, he has worked on issues of concern to the African American community as well as projects in support of, and in solidarity with, social justice movements throughout Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia, and Africa. He is currently an Adjunct Professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and Producer-Coordinator of Special Broadcasts and Events at WBAI-Pacifica, 99.5 FM, New York. Prior to coming to WBAI, he served as Program Director, State and Municipal Legislative Program, at the Africa Fund, where he evaluated U.S. foreign policy toward Africa and lobbied elected officials. Mr. Matsimela graduated from James Monroe H.S. and has a B.A. from City College CUNY. He graduated with a J.D. from NYU School of Law, where he received the prestigious Root Tilden public interest scholarship. Born in Harlem, he was raised and now lives in the South Bronx. During his Revson year, Mr. Matsimela took courses in law, international and public affairs, and writing.
(The Revson Fellow’s biography that appears above was last updated in 2004. Revson Fellows may update their biographies on this site by sending email to: revson@columbia.edu)
The Revson year gave me the opportunity to immerse myself in education reform literature, engage in a year-long analysis of reform proposals, and through coursework, readings, and discussion with Teachers College faculty and students, develop my own ideas about how urban public schools might be improved. The program allowed me to make a critical transition in both where and how I’d previously worked.
