Angel Acosta
Angel Acosta is a doctoral candidate in the Curriculum and Teaching Department at Teachers College, Columbia University. For the last decade, he has worked to bridge the fields of leadership, college access, social justice and mindfulness. As a program director for the national nonprofit, CFES Brilliant Pathways, Angel has supported over 30,000 educational leaders and their students by facilitating leadership trainings and creating pathways to higher education.
With a passion for helping young people to think globally and act locally, he directed and taught at a global leadership study abroad program in Rome through the award-winning Leadership exCHANGE. This opportunity to bring students from all over the world to study leadership, cross-cultural communication and social entrepreneurship inspired Angel to deepen his commitment to social justice in the U.S.A. He began his doctorate program exploring the interconnections between social justice education and mindfulness-based education.
After participating in the Mind and Life Institute’s Academy for Contemplative Leadership, he began consulting and developing learning experiences that weave leadership development, conversations about inequality and healing to support educational leaders through contemplative and restorative practices. As he finishes his doctorate, Angel continues to consult for organizations like the NYC Department of Education, UNICEF, Columbia University and others.
His dissertation explores healing-centered education as a promising framework for educational leadership development and for addressing entrenched racial inequality in the U.S.A. Through TAI, he hopes to help organizations harness the skills and power of innovation for exponential social impact. He is a proud Dominican American and part of the first generation in his family to go to college.