Dr. Brian Chad Starks
Criminologist, scholar, author, speaker, and trainer. He created the Be The Messenger Framework, founded the Courageous Hearts Collective, and certifies the facilitators who deliver the training, so the work reaches rooms he will never stand in.
Where the Framework came from
Dr. Starks was born in the South, the youngest of five, in a home where survival mattered more than school. By 17 he had moved seven times. A bus ride into a fourth grade talented and gifted program showed him a world outside the one he had been boxed into, and sports and education became his way out: a scholarship to Wofford College, a Master's, and a PhD in Criminology from the University of Delaware.
He has taught at Benedict College, Clemson University, Lynchburg College, and Delaware State University, served as Associate Director of Delaware Space Grant, run a bail bonding company, and founded programs for students who were not supposed to make it either. The Be The Messenger Framework, built on Identity, Culture, Diversity, and Respect, grew out of all of it, and it has been published in the Journal of STEM Education and Oceanography.
"We start with who people are before we tell them what to do."
Why he certifies facilitators
One trainer can only be in one room. Districts that go through the training want it to continue after the visit, in their own buildings, with their own people. Certified facilitators make that possible: they complete every reflection as participants first, then learn to lead the day in their own words, never from a script.
Elsewhere
- The industries he serves, from schools and campuses to agencies, courts, healthcare, and companies
- Keynotes for convocations and conferences
- Consulting and advising for institutions and senior leaders
- Courageous Hearts, the 52-week devotional
- The podcast and The Messenger Dispatch