Bringing lived experience, research, and public-service practice together to challenge how we think about safety, systems, and the lives of Black men and boys.
A Different Perspective on Public Safety
My work sits at the intersection of lived experience, research, public service, and community. As a formerly justice-involved Black man, researcher, public safety and community engagement practitioner, and doctoral candidate, I bring a perspective shaped not only by studying systems—but by having experienced them.
Today, my work focuses on the experiences of Black men and boys, policing, public safety, community engagement, and the ways institutions can better understand the people whose lives are most affected by their decisions.
“People are not data points with stories attached. Their stories are data.”
Speaking
Austin brings lived experience, research, and practice into conversations designed to challenge assumptions, center overlooked perspectives, and help audiences think differently about public safety and the systems surrounding it.
01
How centering the voices of communities most impacted by public safety systems can move us beyond enforcement-only approaches toward relationships, healing, opportunity, trust, and meaningful engagement.
02
What the stories Black men tell about police and institutions reveal about trust, legitimacy, identity, and public safety.
03
What changes when people who have experienced systems become researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and leaders helping reshape them.
See Austin Speak
Austin has learned to sit with scholars without forgetting how to stand with the streets.
That ability to move between worlds shapes the way he speaks, researches, and serves. Austin brings lived experience, scholarship, and public-service practice together in conversations that challenge assumptions and invite audiences to see public safety—and the people most affected by it—from a different perspective. Whether speaking with researchers, practitioners, policymakers, or community members, he brings the same commitment: make room for the voices too often discussed in the room without ever being invited into it.