Professional Biography
Dr. Bruce Campbell, Jr., is a Senior Fellow and the Director of the Mid-Career Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership. Prior to his arrival at Penn GSE, he was an Associate Professor and Director of the Educational Leadership and Supervisory Certification programs at Arcadia University’s School of Education. Dr. Campbell holds a doctorate in Educational Leadership and Learning Technologies from Drexel University and a master’s degree in Urban Education from Temple University.
Preceding his career in higher education, Dr. Campbell worked extensively in the field, building capacity toward school improvement in collaboration with school leadership, teachers, and the education community. As a “Distinguished Educator” for the Pennsylvania Department of Education, Dr. Campbell worked with school districts throughout the Commonwealth. His role was to improve school district and school leadership, facilitate personnel evaluation methods, systematize school district and school organization, and evaluate curriculum and assessment techniques and methodologies. Dr. Campbell has also worked at education research firms and nonprofit organizations, including Research for Better Schools and the Philadelphia Education Fund.
Dr. Campbell’s work with these education organizations and his employment at the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights positioned him on the frontline of working with stakeholders in the education community. Dr. Campbell has been able to take his knowledge, experience, and skill to higher education as he trains the next generation of educational leaders. Throughout his career, Dr. Campbell has focused on embedding relevant diversity and social justice issues into his practice, scholarship, and service in education. He highlights the experiences of underrepresented groups so that professionals and institutions can advocate and serve these communities more effectively. His recent TEDx Talk is a good representation of his passion for his work. Dr. Campbell teaches courses in educational leadership, organizational change, urban education, social justice, cultural competency, international musicology, qualitative research methods, and program evaluation.
Music has a long legacy of responding to social inequalities and injustices. Creating music can act as a weapon for social justice, a tactic enabling artists to use their talents and platforms to combat inequities. For this reason, Dr. Campbell created the Dust + Dignity project, an educational experience promoting dialogue and advancing social justice through the exploration of the relationship between music, visual art, and our society. Even its name, Dust + Dignity, points toward social activism. “Dust” represents the digging up of old records and archives, while “Dignity” represents the value of minorities during an era marred by an outing of racial ignorance that has long existed in our country and the world. What began as an audio and visual exhibition has expanded into a movement that has already received attention for its artful activism.
Dr. Campbell is exploring a new direction for this project based on his existing research and scholarly interest. The Dust + Dignity Podcast and Workshops hope to uncover the connections between social justice and leadership that individuals demonstrate within the work they do every day. To do so, the podcast highlights those individuals throughout the globe who have been purposely promoting social justice themes and embodying leadership in their workplaces. By leveraging these leaders’ stories and practices, the project intends to foster the development of other individuals interested in using self-analysis, inquiry, and purposeful reflection to improve their practices continually.
Participants will enhance their leadership abilities and broaden their ideas of what is possible through readings, web media tools, guest speakers, role plays, and activities. Participants will leave this workshop with an “insider” understanding of the evolution and anatomy of a social movement campaign and develop an action plan to bring to their home communities. This could be work they want to do within their current career or as an aside. Participants already engaged in a campaign or those invested in social change would be encouraged to join.
