“Those who have the most power can do the most shaping and the most teaching, and if they are teaching what I believe is wrong, then I believe their power should be taken away from them.”

— James Boggs

Executive Director

  • Charles Ezra Ferrell is Co-Director of the James and Grace Lee Boggs Center of Nurturing Community Leadership (Detroit, MI). He is a board member and chair of the fundraising and development committee at the Walter Rodney Foundation (Atlanta, GA); a board member of the General Baker Institute (Detroit); an Advisory Board member for the Concert of Colors; a member of the University of Michigan General Baker Memorial Scholarship Committee (Ann Arbor, MI); a Field Instructor at the University of Michigan Graduate School of Social Work (Ann Arbor, MI); a Lifetime Member and a former member of the Executive Council of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (Washington, DC); a Lifetime Member of the (AAAM) Association of African American Museums (Washington, D.C); an advisor to PBS Books (Detroit, MI); and an advisory consultant to the Detroit Independent Freedom School Movement (Detroit, MI).

    Ferrell previously served as Senior Vice-President for Development and Global Programs at Keiga Foundation (Roseville, MI) and as Vice-President for Public Programs and Community Engagement at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History (Detroit, MI). Before his non-profit work, Ferrell held various executive management positions as CEO, president, director, and consultant in information technology, personal protective equipment, and strategic management consulting. Ferrell is also a published artist, poet, writer, social justice activist, and devoted husband and father.

Board Members

(In alphabetical order)

  • Mike Doan is a Canadian-born father, activist, and philosopher. He joined the Boggs Center in 2016 while working with DIFS and D-REM. He teaches philosophy at Oakland University.

  • Bio forthcoming.

  • A lifelong learner and people connector using conversation, writing and filmmaking to advocate for feminist values, New Work, New Culture and foster awareness of white privilege.

  • Stephen has been a member of the Boggs Center since 2002. He teaches African American history at the University of Michigan and is the faculty director of UM’s Semester in Detroit program (SiD). He teaches a SiD course called “Theory and Practice of Visionary Organizing” that explores the legacy and lineage of James and Grace Lee Boggs, in collaboration with the Boggs Center, Birwood House, Freedom Freedom Growers, and Freedom Dreams Collective. He is the author of In Love and Struggle: The Revolutionary Lives of James and Grace Lee Boggs (2016) and editor of Pages From a Black Radical’s Notebook: A James Boggs Reader (2011).

Council Members

  • Mike Doan is a Canadian-born father, activist, and philosopher. He joined the Boggs Center in 2016 while working with DIFS and D-REM. He teaches philosophy at Oakland University.

  • Rich Feldman began worked with James & Grace Lee Boggs in 1970s. Born in Brooklyn, raised in 60s movement & married to Janice Fialka with 2 children, Emma & Micah. All committed to Disability Justice.

  • Bio forthcoming.

  • Bio forthcoming

  • Larry Sparks was born June 25, 1950, in Ecorse, Michigan.

    Larry was a founding member of Alternatives in the late 1970s. He created study groups focused on James and Grace Lee Boggs's visionary book, “Revolution and Evolution in the Twentieth Century.” I R.E.T.C. evolved out of ideas in Conversations in Maine.

    Larry became a James and Grace Lee Boggs Center to Nurture Community Leadership member in the nineties. This experience shaped his identity as a revolutionary humanist. He was nurtured by Jimmy, Grace Lee, and Freddy and Lyman Paine to think dialectically for the next American revolution.

    Larry lives in St. Clair Shores, Michigan, with Jimmy Waz, celebrating their 37-year partnership.

  • Bio forthcoming.

  • Stephen has been a member of the Boggs Center since 2002. He teaches African American history at the University of Michigan and is the faculty director of UM’s Semester in Detroit program (SiD). He teaches a SiD course called “Theory and Practice of Visionary Organizing” that explores the legacy and lineage of James and Grace Lee Boggs, in collaboration with the Boggs Center, Birwood House, Freedom Freedom Growers, and Freedom Dreams Collective. He is the author of In Love and Struggle: The Revolutionary Lives of James and Grace Lee Boggs (2016) and editor of Pages From a Black Radical’s Notebook: A James Boggs Reader (2011).