Michelle C. Chatman
Cohort 1 Alum - 2018-2019

Dr. Michelle Coghill Chatman is a cultural anthropologist, contemplative scholar-educator, community-engaged researcher, storyteller, and youth advocate. A native Washingtonian, she serves as an Associate Professor in the Crime, Justice, and Security Studies Program at the University of the District of Columbia (UDC). Her teaching and scholarship focus on urban inequality and the well-being of Black families, holistic youth development, anticolonial pedagogy, mindfulness, and culturally relevant contemplative practices.

Dr. Chatman’s research and public speaking have taken her to TEDx stages and audiences across the U.S., West Africa, the Caribbean, and the U.K. She has contributed to major projects, including the Yale Equity in Student Well-Being Project, the HBCU STEM Undergraduate Research Center, and the Ancestral Computing for Sustainability Study funded by the National Science Foundation. As a Research Fellow with the University of Minnesota’s Interdisciplinary Research Leaders Program, she launched Youth MIND, a mindfulness-based violence prevention and youth development initiative serving teens in Washington, D.C.

Dr. Chatman serves on the boards of The Center for Contemplative Mind in Society (CMIND) and the Mindfulness in Education Network (MIEN). A proud Cohort 1 alum of Transformative Educational Leadership (TEL), she embodies the program’s vision of inner transformation and outward change in education.

She is also the founder of the Black Mindfulness Summit, a gathering of well-being practitioners from across the African Diaspora, and was named one of 10 Powerful Women in the Mindfulness Movement by Mindful.org.

In 2023, she will launch the UDC Mindfulness and Courageous Action (MICA) Lab, advancing healing-centered, liberatory approaches to learning and leadership. Beyond her professional work, Dr. Chatman treasures time with family, karaoke, and travel.