Michael Partis

Michael Partis is Executive Director of the Bronx Cooperative Development Initiative (BCDI). The Bronx Cooperative Development Initiative (BCDI) is a community-led effort to build an equitable, sustainable, and democratic local economy that creates wealth and ownership for low-income people of color. Having developed a borough-wide, multi-stakeholder strategy for economic development that is integrally connected to the broader movement for economic democracy, the Bronx Cooperative Development Initiative is a transformative model for urban economic development that can serve as an example for other communities across the US and the world.

In addition to his work at BCDI, Michael is also a Researcher at the Bronx African American History Project, where he and Professor Mark Naison are editing “After The Fires:” a collection of post-1970s South Bronx oral histories.  He is also co-founder of The Bronx Brotherhood Project, a community-based college success program for Black and Latino teens at the New Settlement College Access Center. Formerly, he was the Director of South Bronx Rising Together (SBRT): a collective impact initiative dedicated to improving health, grade-level reading and math, and post-secondary outcomes in the neighborhoods of Morrisania and Crotona Park West. Michael also draws on over a decade of experience as an educator. He’s been an Instructor at CUNY Borough of Manhattan Community College, a Lecturer in the Department of Anthropology and Archaeology at CUNY Brooklyn College, and Assistant Adjunct Professor of Urban Studies at LIU Brooklyn. His academic publications include articles on Black digital protest movements and racism in the 2016 Presidential election.

Michael Partis is also the Adult Board Chair of the Youth Power Coalition and a Board Member of the New Economy Coalition in New York City.