Gary Delgado is a Visiting Scholar at the Institute for the Study of Social Change at the University of California, Berkeley. The founder and former Executive Director of the Applied Research Center, he is a nationally recognized researcher, lecturer, and activist on issues of race and social justice. Gary was one of the initial organizers of ACORN, a lead organizer with the National Welfare Rights Organization, and cofounder and director of the Center for Third World Organizing (CTWO). Gary received the prestigious Bannerman Fellowship for activists of color; he’s been recognized as a Hellraiser by Mother Jones magazine; and was profiled as a one of 61 Visionaries by the Utne Reader.
Active in both the organizing and the academic communities, he received his B.A. from SUNY Old Westbury in 1972, an M.A. in Urban Affairs from CUNY (Queens College) in 1975, and a Ph.D. in Sociology from UC Berkeley in 1983, where he was awarded Danforth and Whitney Young Fellowships. He has been on the teaching faculty at the City University of New York, a visiting lecturer at the University of Minnesota, UC Davis and UC Berkeley the Pray Lecturer at the Pennsylvania State University and the 2009 Dewey Lecturer at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He has been the principal investigator on studies and articles published by the Manpower Research Development Council, the Social Science Research Council, and the Ford, C.S.Mott, and Annie E. Casey Foundations. His analytical work includes over 35 articles and studies on social change practice.
Most recently he completed the accelerated film studies program at San Francisco State University, the Digital Video Intensive, and has recently finished his first documentary on race and public policy, entitled Racing California. He is currently Board Member Emeritus at the Applied Research Center and the Center for Third World Organizing. He serves on the Board of Directors for the Northwest Federation of Community Organizations and is an honorary Board Member at the Social Justice Fund.