Smallwood Named DCP Executive Director

Effective June 2021, Carl Smallwood (smallwood.21@osu.edu; 614.688.3075) becomes the Executive Director of the Divided Community Project, housed at The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law.

Carl has served as co-director of DCP for the past year, teaming with DCP staff and steering committee personnel Josh Stulberg, William Froehlich, Thomas Battles, Nancy Rogers and others to sustain and expand DCP programming activities in what emerged as a year of unprecedented social justice challenges.   Carl helped design and implement such DCP initiatives as conducting quarterly Thought Leader conversations; convening “leader to leader” discussions among local government personnel, law enforcement officials, faith leader groups, business leaders, and civil rights advocates to address public protests challenging police practices and health care service delivery; helping city leaders organize after-action reporting processes to examine police shootings; organizing university-wide discussions involving students, faculty and campus administrators both pre-and post 2020 presidential election and 2021 inauguration-day events; and  assisting public officials and private organizations design Truth and Reconciliation-style processes to address systemic change.

Grande Lum, chair of the DCP Steering Committee, former director of the Community Relations Service of the U.S. Department of Justice, and current Provost at Menlo College, said: “Carl’s insights, experience, leadership and humanity are perfectly matched to DCP’s mission and our country’s multiple challenges and opportunities.  We are tremendously excited and gratified that he will continue to lead our efforts. I would also like to thank Josh Stulberg for his tremendous service as co-director.”

Carl is a retired partner at Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease LLP in Columbus, Ohio following a successful career resolving disputes by litigation and negotiation.  He is a past president of the National Conference of Bar Presidents as well as the Columbus Bar Association.  For more about Carl, click here.