Cornell William Brooks is a professor at the Harvard Kennedy School, where he teaches the courses "Practice of Nonprofit Organizations" and "Practice of Public Leadership and Social Justice". He is also director of The William Monroe Trotter Collaborative for Social Justice at the School’s Center for Public Leadership, and visiting professor of the course "Practice of Prophetic Religion and Public Leadership" at Harvard Divinity School. Brooks is the former president and CEO of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), a civil rights attorney, and an ordained minister.