Chezare A. Warren, Ph.D., M.B.A. hails from the South Side of Chicago. Grandson of a Jamaican immigrant, Chezare earned a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education with a minor in Mathematics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He would go on to become a middle school math teacher and instructional coach at two turnaround elementary schools in Chicago. After nearly a decade of K-12 teaching and leading, Chezare began a career in higher education upon receipt of his PhD from the University of Illinois-Chicago. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania before beginning his tenure-track career at Michigan State University in the departmental home of the #1 program in Elementary and Secondary Education. Dr. Warren’s training in policy studies, urban education, and critical race studies has led to the publication of three books and more than 50 articles, chapters, reports, and commentaries since 2013.

Chezare’s academic achievements have garnered national and international recognition. He is recipient of two early career awards from the American Educational Research Association. In 2019, he was the first faculty member in Michigan State University College of Education history to be awarded the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine/Ford Foundation postdoctoral fellowship, and in 2024 delivered the Charles DeGarmo Lecture—the highest honor awarded to an education scholar from the Society of Professors of Education.

A highly sought after speaker, Dr. Warren has held visiting appointments at Stanford University, New York University, and Teachers College, Columbia University. When not reading, writing, teaching, or speaking, you might find him writing original music or volunteering as a member of the 100 Black Men of Middle Tennessee and Alpha Phi Alpha, Fraternity, Inc.