Denzel Cummings

Denzel joined IEL in 2015 as the Coalition for Community Schools National Policy Emerson Fellow from the Netter Center for Community Partnerships at the University of Pennsylvania. His primary duties include tracking, analyzing, and creating documents for federal legislation, regulation, and guidance as they relate to moving the community schools policies agenda. Prior to joining IEL, Denzel has worked for Search for Common Ground as a DC Race intern, and for Cory Booker for U.S. Senate as a campaign fellow. Denzel has also been involved with the Netter Center as a summer college prep coordinator for Lea Community School. Through this position, Denzel has worked on creating syllabi and programs for middle school students in order for them to get their first taste of the college experience at an early age. In his undergraduate career, Denzel helped co-found the Black Ivy Coalition, a coalition of minority student leaders across all eight Ivy League Schools and several other institutions, which has been featured in several publications. Denzel also served as Co-Chair of UMOJA, the umbrella group for the African Diaspora at Penn, and worked on several projects with the President's and Vice Provosts office regarding safe spaces for minority students, faculty diversity, and police/community relations. Denzel graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a B.A. in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics with a Distributive Justice concentration.