MWALIMU

To work in the spirit of Sankofa, we apply the teachings, guidance, and wisdom of all that have come before us, to advance the vision of Iya Adeniji, and African people of the Diaspora

Uraua Am Tehuti Khamau serves as the chief priest and paramount King of the Pennsylvania area of the Ausar Auset Society.

For the past 28 years, he has been responsible for the administration of classes and ceremonies for the African American community in Philadelphia, Trenton NJ and Pittsburgh Pa. With the assistance of the regions priesthood body he has officiated marriage, funerary and naming ceremonies and sponsored hundreds of uplifting community programs throughout this period.

Beginning his training in martial arts at age 16, Uraua has developed proficiency in Japanese Goju and later went on to found a Capoeira group in Philadelphia. His early exposure to breathing and meditation practices in these arts matured with his training in Taoist yoga, Qi Gong and Iron crotch Iron Shirt Qi Gong under the direction of the sage Ra Un Nefer Amen.

Professionally Uraua has 30 years of experience in business development focused on marketing retail sales and real estate. He has been instrumental in the founding of several Ausar Auset ventures including current retail operations of the Nile Cafe Vegan Restaurant and Nuwaters, an industrial scale water purification business. He also played a pivotal role in the acquisition of the 20.000 square foot complex in Philadelphia that serves as the groups headquarters and retail operation.

In addition to teaching weekly, Uraua provides personal and group counseling in the areas of spiritual development, relationships and business.

Huberta Jackson-Lowman is a Professor of Psychology and past Chair of the Department of Psychology at Florida A&M University in Tallahassee, Florida. A Fulbright-Hays Scholar and editor of the anthology Afrikan American Women: Living at the Crossroads of Race, Gender, Class and Culture (2014), her post-doctoral career spans nearly 40 years and has consisted of roles in both the private and public sectors. Currently, she serves as the President of the National Association of Black Psychologists. She is certified through the Association of Black Psychologists as a diplomate and fellow in Afrikan-centered psychology. Throughout her career, Dr. Jackson-Lowman has demonstrated an ongoing commitment to the health and well-being of Black families and communities. For the past seven years she has led the implementation of Community Healing DaysSM in Tallahassee, a national initiative of the Community Healing Network that focuses on defying the lie of black inferiority. She has also been instrumental in the training of trainers for Emotional Emancipation CirclesSM (EECs) in the greater Tallahassee community.

Dr. Jackson-Lowman’s research examines the effects of the intersectionality of race, gender, class, and culture on the health, mental health, and relationships of women of Afrikan ancestry and explores the use of cultural strategies in the socialization of Black youth. An emerging area of research focuses on the use of cultural policy to reset standards and norms in troubled Black communities and foster a sense of agency and empowerment.

She and her husband, William Lowman, currently reside in Tallahassee, Florida. Both are former residents of Pittsburgh and were actively engaged in addressing social and political issues within the Black community, notably their involvement in the filing of a complaint against the Pittsburgh Public Schools with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission for failing to educate Black children. They have three children and five grandchildren.

Mukwae Wabei Siyolwe has a BA in Acting (Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London), an MA in Performance Studies (New York University), an MA in Producing Film and Video (American) and an MFA in Film and Digital Technology (Chatham). Professional credits are many and include Mass (Barbican Centre, London), the Oscar™ nominated film Cry Freedom (Universal), Nuns on the Run (Handmade Films), The Crossing (BBC TWO), King, The Musical (Piccadilly Theatre, London), To Kill a Mockingbird and School for Scandal (Birmingham Repertory Theatre), Constant Star (City Theatre, Pittsburgh) to name a few. She won Best of Pittsburgh for directing The Island (City Theatre, Pittsburgh). She teaches regularly and has been faculty at the Norwegian Theatre Academy and the University of Namibia as well as developing culturally responsive arts curricula for the Pittsburgh Public Schools in association with the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust and Gateway to the Arts.

As the artistic producing director of global posse productions, inc., she was a screenwriting fellow with Miramax Films for the Sundance Institute and Southern African Screenwriters Lab (SCRAWL), she is a pitching finalist at Sithengi Film and TV Market, South Africa. She writes her own blog and is a contributor to Afrikadaa, a Paris based journal of Afro art and design. Wade in the Water, a hybrid immersive film is her new work and is currently touring Yucatan, Mexico.

She is a producer on Two 1/2 years, a mixtape album about the spirit of Juneteenth with international and national jazz and hip hop musicians. Recipient of multiple grants, she recently was awarded the Heshima Lifetime Achievement Award for Cry Freedom from the Tazama Film Festival.

Dr. Anthony B. Mitchell, Sr. is an Associate Teaching Professor in the Department of African and African American Studies at Penn State Greater Allegheny. He is the co-founder of the Stewart and Jones Scholar-Leadership Program (SJSLP), a collegiate mentoring program for males of color at Penn State. Dr. Mitchell annually teaches courses in African history, African American history, and American history. His academic research includes parental involvement, educating and mentoring African American males, African American history, and evaluating Afrocentric rites-of-passage and African-centered educational programs. Dr. Mitchells’ studies involve examining the Civil Rights Movement in Charlotte, North Carolina, Atlanta, Georgia, Birmingham, Montgomery, Selma, Alabama, Little Rock, Arkansas, and other battleground cities. Dr. Mitchell has published academic articles in the Journal of the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society, the Black Child Journal, the Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment, the Journal of Pan-African Studies, the Pennsylvania Black Conference on Higher Education Journal, Spectrum: A Journal on Black Men, and Sex Roles Journal.

His 36 years of institutional and community service include numerous national, statewide, and regional educational initiatives that aim to advance educational equity among historically marginalized and under-represented groups. Since 2006, he has served on the Equity Advisory Panel (EAP) to raise African American students’ achievement in the Pittsburgh Public Schools. Dr. Mitchell’s institutional leadership efforts have resulted in recognition by various local and national organizations. In May 2020, he received the Commitment to Community Service Award at Greater Allegheny, and, in 2017, the College of Education Alumni Society “Service to Penn State Award” and, in 2015, the Penn State Forum on Black Affairs (FOBA) “Humanitarian Service Award” for his leadership, extensive contributions and service to historically under-represented populations and diverse communities in Pennsylvania.

He is a graduate of Geneva College and holds a master’s degree in education from Penn State University and a doctorate in Administration and Leadership Studies (ALS) from the Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

Asar Imhotep is a software developer, Cultural Theorist and Africana researcher from Houston, TX whose research focus is the cultural, linguistic and philosophical links between the Ancient Egyptian civilizations and modern Bantu cultures of central and South Africa. He is currently continuing his education in Computer Science with a concentration in Artificial Intelligence. Asar is the founder of the Madu-Ndela Institute for the Advancement of Science and Culture. He is the author of such works as Where is the Love? How language can reorient us back to love’s purpose (2015), and Nsw.t Bjt.j [NOTE: pronounced NesuBiti] (King)in Ancient Egyptian: A lesson in paronymy and leadership (2016). He has contributed chapters to academic works including The Encyclopedia of African Religion (2008) edited by Molefi Asante and AmaMazama; and Unite et Pluralite de la Verite: Melangesenl’Honneur du Prof. Dr. Alphonse NginduMushete,Vol. I (2014) edited by R. MalabaMpoyi and KalambaNsapo. Asar Imhotep is a frequent contributor and presenter at the Cheikh Anta Diop International Conferences, and was also presented the DISA Award for “Intellectual Initiative and Academic Action” in 2015.

Asar is a noted speaker and philosopher and is currently organizing efforts in a nation-wide venture titled The African-American Cultural Development Project—a national project aimed at creating a framework for an African-American culture which will help vitally stimulate the economic, political, scientific and cultural spheres of African-American life in the United States. He also aco-founder of Black Science Month (October), that highlights and encourages African achievement and advancement in the S.T.E.M. fields.