john a. powell Professor john a. powell is an internationally recognized authority on civil rights and civil liberties, race, structural racism, ethnicity, housing, poverty and democracy. He is executive director of the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at The Ohio State University, and he holds the Gregory H. Williams Chair in Civil Rights & Civil Liberties at the University’s Michael E. Moritz College of Law. He is also a member of the Insight Experts of Color Network. Professor powell has written extensively on a number of issues including structural racism; racial justice and regionalism; concentrated poverty and urban sprawl; opportunity-based housing; voting rights; affirmative action in the United States; South Africa and Brazil; racial and ethnic identity; spirituality and social justice; and the needs of citizens in a democratic society. Previously, he founded and directed the Institute on Race and Poverty at the University of Minnesota. He also served as director of Legal Services in Miami, Florida and was national legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union where he was instrumental in developing educational adequacy theory. Professor powell has worked and lived in Africa, where he was a consultant to the governments of Mozambique and South Africa, and in India and has worked in South America and Europe. He is one of the co-founders of the Poverty & Race Research Action Council and serves on the board of several national organizations. Professor powell has taught at numerous law schools, including at Harvard and Columbia universities. He joined the faculty at The Ohio State University in 2002.