Rozzell Medina (he/him), Lead Instructor
Rozzell's passion for teaching is rooted in a belief that people learning together, in community, can greatly improve people's lives and our society as a whole. However, this won't happen if we model our classrooms and learning communities after institutions that harm people and the health of our society. So Rozzell looks to nature, Indigeneity, art, and liberation for inspiration to create healthy and creative learning communities. In addition to managing programs and serving as the lead instructor of Humanity in Perspective, Rozzell is the festival director of the Portland EcoFilm Festival. Previously, he founded and directed the creative learning nonprofit, Public Social University, which transformed art galleries, cafes, museums, and public parks into free, temporary community schools. He also directed the Chiron Studies program at Portland State University, which enabled students to create, design, and instruct official, for-credit classes.
Rozzell grew up in and around Choctaw, Oklahoma; San Francisco, California; and San Antonio, Texas. He has lived in Portland for about 20 years, though he loves wandering off now and then, mostly to visit ancestral homelands in Mexico and New Mexico.
Adam Davis (he/him), Fall HIP Instructor
Adam has been the executive director of Oregon Humanities since 2013 and previously directed the Center for Civic Reflection in Chicago. In these jobs, he's trained thousands of discussion leaders across the country, facilitated hundreds of community and workplace discussions, moderated onstage conversations with community-builders, office-holders, and authors, and worked on organizational planning, support, and growth. He is host of Oregon Humanities’ podcast and radio show, The Detour, and he has edited books including Taking Action, The Civically Engaged Reader, and Hearing the Call across Traditions. Adam has taught several philosophy and literature classes in Humanity in Perspective and other Clemente Courses.
Jacque Hammond, Teaching Assistant
Jacque is a genre-bending singer, writer, and first-time filmmaker based in Portland by way of Los Angeles. Originally from Joliet, Illinois, she has written, produced, and performed for over a decade. With creative origins in poetry and storytelling, she is passionate about the way words have the ability to inspire our imaginations.
She is a 2024 recipient of Portland Institute For Contemporary Art’s Precipice Fund and a Regional Arts and Culture Council’s Arts3c grant. Her latest work, In My Own Image ,is a spellbinding exploratory musical short film unearthing a journey of identity and existence through an EcoWomanist lens. She believes that our inner child offers us a portal to possibilities long forgotten and seeks to inspire positive change in her community.
She is a member of Portland’s Afro arts collective Be Present Art Group and alternative soul trio WRK! Her music has been featured on Pitchfork, OWN, STARZ, Max, Tribeca Film Festival, and more.
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