Dr. Muhammad Khalifa is the Robert Beck Foundation Professor in the Department of Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. His research examines how urban school leaders enact culturally responsive leadership and anti-oppressive school practices. He has written extensively about minority student identities in school and how schools can become liberating spaces for youth. In addition to his previous work as an urban educator in Detroit, he has worked with ministers of education in Africa and Asia, helping them create educational goals and reforms.

He is the author of the newly published book, Culturally Responsive School Leadership (Harvard Education Press). He is also the co-editor of three previous books: A Handbook of Urban Educational Leadership (Rowan & Littlefield) and Being Critical: The Emergence of Social Justice Scholars (SUNY Press) and The School-to-Prison Pipeline. The Role of Culture and Discipline in Schooling (Emerald Books). Dr. Khalifa has also published recently in top-ranked education journals such as Review of Educational Research, Teachers College Record, QSE, Urban Review, Educational Administration Quarterly, and Race, Ethnicity, and Education.

Dr. Khalifa has developed a sophisticated online “equity audit” tool for use in U.S. schools—a research-based way to reduce achievement and discipline disparities in schools (redacted). And through the Institute for Culturally Responsive School Leadership, he and his team are developing learning modules to help schools become culturally responsive (crsli.org).