David W. Robinson-Morris, Ph.D.

Dr. David W. Robinson-Morris is a nationally recognized scholar, public intellectual, speaker, and institutional leader whose work sits at the intersection of imagination, justice, and the flourishing of the human spirit. He is the Founder and Executive Director of the Center for the Human Spirit and Radical Reimagining, where he advances interdisciplinary approaches to equity, belonging, and systemic transformation. His work is grounded in a central animating question: What does it mean to be human?

 

Dr. Robinson-Morris is also the Founder and Chief Reimaginelutionary of The REImaginelution, a strategic consulting and thought leadership enterprise dedicated to catalyzing institutional and societal transformation through imagination. Across sectors, he partners with leaders in higher education, philanthropy, healthcare, and nonprofit organizations to design strategies that move communities toward justice and collective flourishing.

 

His scholarly work is rooted in educational leadership, critical theory, Black intellectual traditions, and contemplative practice. He is the author of Ubuntu and Buddhism in Higher Education: An Ontological (Re)Thinking (2019), and his co-edited work, Contemplative Practice as an Act of Resistance in Higher Education, extends his intellectual contributions by examining how contemplative traditions function as tools of liberation, disruption, and renewal in the face of structural injustice. His scholarship explores the intersections of ontology, identity, belonging, and liberation, with particular attention to how institutions shape human experience and possibility. He advances frameworks that position equity as both a structural imperative and a deeply relational, ethical, and spiritual practice.

 

Central to Dr. Robinson-Morris’s work is a deep commitment to scholar-activism. He understands scholarship not as an isolated intellectual exercise, but as a form of engaged practice that must be in constant dialogue with communities, movements, and lived realities. His work reflects a sustained investment in community-building, organizing, and cultivating spaces where individuals and institutions can collectively reimagine and enact more just futures. He regularly convenes scholars, practitioners, artists, and community leaders to engage in critical dialogue and co-create strategies for institutional and societal transformation.

 

Dr. Robinson-Morris’s career reflects a distinctive blend of scholarship and executive leadership. At Xavier University of Louisiana, he founded the Center for Equity, Justice, and the Human Spirit, an interdisciplinary initiative that became a national model for integrating research, community engagement, and public scholarship. Under his leadership, the Center advanced work across PK–16 educational equity, criminal justice reform, environmental justice, and public health. It secured nearly two million dollars in funding and convened diverse stakeholders, including scholars, practitioners, policymakers, and community members, to address systemic inequities.

 

The Center also played a critical civic role during the COVID-19 pandemic. It hosted large-scale public forums that connected communities with leading experts and essential information, demonstrating Dr. Robinson-Morris’s commitment to translating knowledge into public impact. These efforts strengthened trust, expanded access to critical resources, and positioned the Center as a vital community partner during a time of crisis.

 

In addition to his role as a founder, Dr. Robinson-Morris served Xavier University as Assistant Vice President of Development, where he contributed to securing transformative philanthropic investments, including the largest individual gift in the institution’s history. He also served as an Assistant Professor, where he taught doctoral students in leadership and research, mentoring emerging scholars and practitioners committed to equity and justice.

 

In 2024, Dr. Robinson-Morris was appointed the inaugural Executive Director of the Institute for Black Intellectual and Cultural Life at Dartmouth College. In this role, he is leading the development of a pioneering interdisciplinary institute dedicated to advancing the study and global impact of Black diasporic intellectual and cultural life. The Institute serves as a dynamic site of scholarly collaboration, artistic expression, and community engagement, bringing together faculty, students, artists, and public intellectuals to generate new knowledge and imagine liberated futures.

 

Earlier in his career, Dr. Robinson-Morris held senior leadership roles in healthcare and nonprofit organizations. At Ochsner Health, he led regional diversity and inclusion strategy, advancing initiatives focused on health equity, workforce development, and organizational culture. At the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society, he contributed to national efforts to integrate contemplative practices into education and civic life, supporting a more humane and reflective approach to leadership and learning. At Loyola University New Orleans, he served as Associate Director of Alumni Relations and led efforts to increase alumni and volunteer engagement across the country, while managing alumni association scholarships and developing alumni engagement events and initiatives. David began his career as Senior Publicist to the Mayor of the city of New Orleans following the city’s devastation from Hurricane Katrina. He was responsible for spearheading communications efforts for the core departments critical to the city’s recovery and rebuilding, and engaging local, national and international press.

 

Dr. Robinson-Morris’s civic and community engagement is a defining dimension of his work. He has collaborated with grassroots organizations, faith communities, public institutions, and national networks to advance dialogue, build capacity, and support community-based solutions to complex social challenges. His work centers the voices and experiences of those most impacted by injustice, ensuring that strategies for change are both inclusive and grounded in lived reality. He has served as a convener, facilitator, and advisor across a range of local and national initiatives focused on racial justice, educational opportunity, and community well-being.

 

Across all of his work, Dr. Robinson-Morris brings a distinctive commitment to the disciplined practice of imagination. He understands imagination as a force for transformation, a way of seeing beyond present constraints and projecting new possibilities for human life and institutional design. Through his leadership, scholarship, and community engagement, he invites individuals and organizations to move beyond incremental change and toward deeper forms of renewal rooted in dignity, belonging, and the full realization of our shared humanity.

 

Dr. Robinson-Morris is a member in several organizations including: Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., the American Association of Blacks in Higher Education (AABHE), the American Educational Research Association (AERA), the Association of Fundraising Professionals, (AFP), the African American Development Officers Network, the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE), and the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education, to name a few.

 

Currently, David serves on the following boards of directors: New Orleans African American Museum, Center for Restorative Approaches, Teach for America Greater New Orleans, Invest Louisiana (nee Louisiana Budget Project), The Historic New Orleans Collection Acquisition Committee, and The Plessy & Ferguson Initiative. 

 

Dr. Robinson-Morris has served as a member of the historic city of New Orleans Street Renaming Commission’s Outreach and Research subcommittees, chair of the St. Charles Avenue Center for Faith + Action Board of Directors, Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy (EPIP) Louisiana Steering Committee, the Loyola University New Orleans Historic Naming Committee, the Overcoming Racism Committee for the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, and was an appointed member of Governor John Bel Edwards’ Louisiana Climate Initiatives Task Force Equity Advisory Group. He is a founding member of the Charles Deslondes Branch of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. In 2021, David was appointed to the New Orleans Steering Committee of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), where he served as the Louisiana Political Action Committee. ​

 

David is a former Commissioner of the city of New Orleans Human Relations Commission where he was appointed co-chair of the Commission’s Truth and Reconciliation subcommittee, a former member of the Academic Advisory Committee of E. Pluribus Unum Fund and served as the Higher Education Cluster Co-Leader for the Campaign for Equity New Orleans (CENO). He is the former vice president of the College Beyond Board of Directors, former vice chair of the Leona Tate Foundation for Change, past board chair for Emerging Philanthropists of New Orleans (EPNO), former member of the ADL South Central Region Board of Directors, the board of directors of the Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans, the One Book One New Orleans Board of Directors, the Historic New Orleans Collection’s DEI Strategic Planning Advisory Council, Son of a Saint Foundation Advisory Board, Lycée Français de la Nouvelle-Orléans Board of Directors, the Loyola University New Orleans Alumni Association Board of Directors, and is a founding board member of Propeller (née Social Entrepreneurs of New Orleans).

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In July 2021, David’s commitment to education, equity, justice, and the flourishing of the human spirit within the New Orleans community was recognized by the New Orleans Young Leadership Council (YLC) as a 2021 YLC Role Model awardee and by The Gambit Weekly as a 40 Under 40 Class of 2021 honoree. 

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Dr. Robinson-Morris obtained his Bachelor of Arts in Communications – Public Relations from Loyola University New Orleans, Master of Public Administration (MPA) with concentrations in Non-Profit Leadership and Public Policy from the University of New Orleans, a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership and Research with a dual concentration in Higher Education Administration and Curriculum Theory and an Educational Specialist Certificate with a focus on applied research, measurement, and evaluation both from Louisiana State University.

 

He is a proud native of Galveston, Texas.