Joseph E. Marshall

Executive Director, Omega Boys Club

Dr. Joseph E. Marshall, Jr. is an author, lecturer, radio talk show host, and community activist. He is the founder of the Alive & Free Movement and the founder and president of the Street Soldiers National Consortium, an organization dedicated to eliminating violence worldwide. He is the co-founder and Executive Director of Omega Boys Club/Street Soldiers, a youth development and violence prevention organization headquartered in San Francisco, California that emphasizes academic achievement and nonviolence. Founded in 1987, the organization has transformed the lives of more than 10,000 young people and produced 163 college graduates, all supported by the Omega Scholarship Fund. Another 60 Omegas are currently enrolled in college, and 32 have gone on to earn graduate degrees. As Executive Director of the Omega Boys Club, he oversees the Omega Leadership Academy for academic and life skills education, the Omega Training Institute for replicating the Alive & Free Prescription violence prevention methodology, and Street Soldiers Radio and Violence Prevention Program, which brings the Alive & Free message to communities across the US and the world.

Dr. Marshall is a recognized social entrepreneur for his pioneering work redefining youth violence as a disease and developing the successful Alive & Free Prescription. He is an Ashoka Fellow, part of a network of leaders in more than 60 countries who are implementing system-changing solutions for the world's most urgent social problems. Dr. Marshall served as a planner and peer reviewer of the 2001 US Surgeon General's Report on Youth Violence, and his method informed the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's Best Practices of Youth Violence Prevention in 2002. Dr. Marshall's innovation has earned him the MacArthur Genius Award, the Children's Defense Fund Leadership Award, the Essence Award, and the Use Your Life Award from Oprah Winfrey. Other awards include the 2007 African American Excellence in Business award, 2006 San Francisco Foundation Community Leadership Award, and the 2006 Jefferson Award from the American Institute for Public Service. He is the author of the 1996 best-selling book, Street Soldier: One Man's Struggle to Save a Generation, One Life at a Time and the subject of the Street Soldiers documentary narrated by Danny Glover which aired on PBS. Dr. Marshall holds honorary doctorates from Morehouse College and the University of San Francisco, a Ph.D. in Psychology from Berkeley's Wright Institute, and an M.A. in Education from San Francisco State University. He is a current member and past president of the San Francisco Police Commission and a trustee emeritus of the University of San Francisco.

Primary Presenter for: Discipline that Does No Harm: Improving Academic Outcomes for African-American Male Students