Dean Morris

Advisor

As an advisor on the Sponsored Projects and Funds team, Dean Morris is an advisor on the Sponsored Projects and Funds team. Dean’s experience includes several years of having worked at organizations that were fiscally sponsored. Dean brings a rich background of experience to RPA, including most recently having served eight years as the director of programs at the West Harlem Development Corporation.

Prior to that, at Ford, Dean coordinated grant-making and programmatic activities in the Freedom of Expression Unit with a focus on ethnic media and social justice. Dean also served on Ford’s Good Neighbor Committee as an education program officer and oversaw grants to organizations whose missions were to increase access to education and economic opportunities for underrepresented communities. Dean’s non-profit background also consists of having served as an ombudsman for individuals coping with homelessness, mental illness, and substance addiction.

Dean has a certificate in Mediation and Conflict Resolution, a B.S. in Social Theory, Social Structure & Change, and a M.S. in Organizational Change Management from Milano – The New School for Management & Urban Policy. Highlights of his studies at Milano include serving as a project leader for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon Design Challenge and a thesis that explored the use of action research as a community organizing tool to empower residents in the South Bronx to make choices that benefit themselves and the environment.

Dean enjoys arts and cultural programming, has too many books and plants, and a long list of wood restoration projects.

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