Executive Director, LGBTQ Institute at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights
Tim’m T. West is an educator, poet, youth advocate, and hip-hop artist who has spent decades traveling the nation, teaching about issues at the intersection of race, gender, sexuality, and social justice. A graduate of Duke University (BA), The New School for Social Research (MA), and Stanford University (MA), he is the author of several books and hip-hop projects, and is widely anthologized. He has also appeared in multiple documentaries that explore hip-hop and black masculinity.
A seasoned educator, Tim’m has taught at Cal Poly Humboldt and Houston Community College. He’s also been a high school educator in Washington, DC and Oakland, California. Between 2014 and 2022, Tim’m principally led Teach For America’s National Prism Alliances, advancing safer and braver classrooms for LGBTQ educators and students in grades pre-K through 12.
Tim'm was a long-time board member of the LGBTQ Institute at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta, where he had also served as a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion consultant. In 2022, Tim’m was named Executive Director of the LGBTQ Institute.
Named one of thirty-one icons during LGBTQ history month in October 2015, Tim’m is the founder and host of The Brave Educator podcast and lives in Cincinnati, Ohio.
