Dr. Washington’s research focuses on civic engagement, community organizing, empowerment, and educational policies. He studies processes that enhance oppressed people’s and organizations’ ability to take actions to benefit the groups and communities to which they belong. Much of this work takes place alongside community and youth organizing efforts and community-driven health promotion initiatives. An overarching goal is to identify the mechanisms – at multiple levels of analysis – that account for links between engagement in empowerment processes and community-based nonprofit organizations. Dr. Washington’s background is primarily in the nonprofit and public sector (community engagement, youth development, and education reform), but he applies concepts from multiple social science disciplines and uses multiple methods to understand and inform community-driven efforts to improve systems of inequity. Consequently, he also engages in applied fields such as community development and organizational leadership. He currently serves on several community-based nonprofit boards.
At the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, Dr. Washington was an Associate Lecturer at the Helen Bader Institute in the Department of Public Administration. He is also a Teaching Assistant Professor at Marquette University.