Meet Us Monday: Dr. Kwesi Brookins
For today’s Meet Us Monday, we are highlighting our Center Director, Dr. Kwesi Brookins, who has been with us since July 2020. When asked about the focus of his work, he shared that his role is primarily leadership, visioning and management. He strives to enable everyone to do their best work through creating a supportive work environment and finding financial and other resources that make this possible. Dr. Brookins also leads the Wake Community-University Partnership (WakeCUP), which is a community-engaged initiative in Southeast Raleigh and Eastern Wake county that connects faculty and students from across the university with community partners and addresses community-identified needs through research, technical assistance and service-learning projects. Dr. Brookins noted that staff and faculty partners as a whole bring knowledge and expertise to the work done in family and child welfare, community engagement, addiction and military wellness.
Since the beginning of his time at CFACE, Dr. Brookins’ primary focus has been on an organizational excellence initiative. A Center-wide needs assessment begun in early 2020 identified several areas that were contributing to a less-than-optimal work environment. Since then, Dr. Brookins has held a number of meetings with staff and students, convened staff councils and embarked upon several projects. These projects have focused on diversity, equity, inclusion and anti-racism; improving operational policies and procedures; providing professional development for our leadership team and staff; and strategic planning that seeks to involve everyone in understanding how they fit with and can contribute to the future directions and success of the Center.
When asked about his favorite part of working with CFACE he said “Hands down, the people. I have enjoyed working with a tremendously talented, wise, caring, and competent group of folks who have truly made my job fun to do.” His interests and hobbies include reading (fiction and nonfiction), music, beer and wine-making, photography and community service. He is also professionally and personally identified as an AfriKan-Community Psychologist. In a nutshell, this means he cares deeply about and has approached his scholarly, teaching and research career to work with and in primarily Black communities both here in the US and across the African diaspora.
