Michael “Chappie” Grice is a teacher, administrator, coach, mentor, researcher, college instructor, entrepreneur, arts advocate, raconteur, grandfather, and documentary filmmaker. He has worked more than 40 years in public education. He holds a B.A. from Cornell College (Iowa), and M.A.T. from Reed College (Oregon).
Mr. Grice currently serves as Executive Director for the Center for Airways Science, an educational program for urban teenagers teaching aviation and applied mathematics. He retired as Supervisor for Leadership Development in the San Francisco Unified School District in 2005. His professional development strategy for urban public schools, “Cure for the Common Classroom” building “character and community” in the classroom make him a highly regarded consultant and presenter in conferences and school districts across the U.S. Mr. Grice was recognized nationally in 2010 with the H. Councill Trenholm Human and Civil Rights Award from the National Education Association.
Mr. Grice has recruited junior-high school students from San Francisco, Oakland, Detroit, and Portland schools for the engineering schools summer college preparatory seminar on the campus of Ft. Valley State University – in Georgia, annually since 1992.
As a documentary film-maker, his film “Black Families and the Railroad…” was selected for the 2005 San Francisco Black Film Festival and the 2006 SF Noir Black History Month Celebration at the Sony Metreon. In 2007, his second documentary film “Mr. Title I: The amazing Gus Hawkins” chronicles the contributions of the famed congressman from California, the late Augustus F. Hawkins was also selected by the SFBFF, and contributed to him receiving the Ed Elliott Human Rights Award in 2008 from the Oregon Education Association.
His life work is to build a business institute for middle and high school-age youth that would integrate entrepreneurship, technology, mentoring, and the arts and sciences. His love for young people and belief in their achievement potential drives his commitment to collaborate with diverse leaders and organizations in order to build stronger communities through education. He has designed and conducted national research and evaluation on achievement motivation, mathematics literacy interventions, cognitive development, youth leadership, and arts education.
In 1989, he served as the local conference chair for the annual convention of the National Alliance of Black School Educators (NABSE). From 1994-1998, Mr. Grice served as president of the National Council on Educating Black Children, and was a chief architect on the revised edition of the nationally recognized school-reform planning tool, “A Blueprint for Action.” He was selected for the 1994 and 1995 editions of Who’s Who in American Education, and awarded the prestigious “John H. Jackson Leadership Award” at the Skanner News Breakfast in 2008.
Mr. Grice, was appointed by three Governors to the Oregon Arts Commission and a two-term board member for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival; a Life Member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity and active on local and national boards including, Outward Bound – San Francisco Council, Texas Southern University – CPAL Program, National Council on Educating Black Children; and has produced two television documentaries on heroes in education and labor industries. For the past twenty-three years he has co-produced and directed the annual gospel and talent showcase: “Keep Alive the Dream: A Tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.” via World Arts Foundation, Inc., a non-profit arts and education organization www.wafinc.org in his hometown, Portland, Oregon.
