Dr. Henry J. Bowers Focus Group

Chardin Claybourne

Chardin Claybourne is tenured faculty at Henry Ford College, where he directs the Henry Ford II Honors Program. Prior to his appointment as Director of the Honors Program, he served as director of the Learning Lab for nearly ten years. Mr. Claybourne has served as a faculty advisor of the Henry J. Bowers Focus Group since 2016.

Over a nearly two-decade higher education career, he has served in administrative and instructional capacities for several higher education institutions, including the University of Michigan, Wayne State University, and Oakland University. Mr. Claybourne is a graduate of Central Michigan University (BS and MA). He is actively engaged in improving HFC’s retention, persistence, and success efforts.

Kalvin DaRonne Harvell

Dr. Harvell is a professor of sociology at Henry Ford College in Dearborn, Michigan. He has taught an array of courses, including but not limited to, Ethnic and Racial Diversity in Society, Independent Studies, and Leadership in Diverse Communities and Organizations. Furthermore, Dr. Harvell taught in a learning community designed for under-represented males. In addition to his teaching duties, Dr. Harvell coordinates the Henry J. Bowers Focus Group, an academic and social support network designed to address equity on the campus of Henry Ford College. Dr. Harvell is the founder and chair of multiple regional conferences each year, including those that positively impact the college experience, retention, and graduation rates of Black male students and support and honor the excellence and success of Black women.

Dr. Harvell is the past president of the Michigan Sociological Association. Additionally, he is the chief intellectual officer (CIO) at Harvell & Associates, an educational consulting firm involved in the production of asset-focused, culturally responsive educational programming. Of all his accomplishments and letters, the letters he is most proud and passionate about are - D A D D Y!

Dr. Courtney Aleise Matthews

Dr. Courtney Aleise Matthews is a Florida native and alum of the HBCU, Florida A&M University. Matthews has been an English professor for the last 13 years. In addition to teaching, she has also worked with students as an academic advisor, writing center tutor and writing center director. After earning her Bachelor’s in Journalism and English from FAMU, Matthews went on to earn a Masters in English Literature from the University of Toledo. There she started her teaching career in 2009. From Toledo, Ohio Matthews moved to Hawaii where she was a professor, a paralegal at a top law firm and earned another degree. While in Hawaii, Matthews earned a Masters in Linguistics, with a focus on endangered languages and language revitalization, from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. In line with this work, Matthews won the Linguistic Endowment fund which she used to create and distribute a book in Hawaiian and English (Hawaiian language revitalization materials) to schools under Keiki O Ka ‘Aina. Matthews has also earned a certificate from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Including Ourselves in the Change Equation: Personal Learning for Organizational Performance. Given her student centered focus, Matthews has also earned a Doctorate in Applied Learning Sciences from the University of Miami, with a focus on how Writing Centers can help college students transfer knowledge and writing skills across the curriculum and into their careers.

With a passion for student success and introducing students to new opportunities, Matthews has visited over 30 countries, including taking groups of students on study abroad trips from hiking the Great Wall of China, to a historical tour of India from Delhi to Agra and Kochi, to building a school in Ghana with Pencils of Promise. Dr. Matthews has also been a faculty judge and speaker at the Youth Innovative Conference on Global Governance (YICGG) where she helped to prepare and coach groups of students working on projects from sustainable development (2016 in Shanghai, China) to future energy and sustainable infrastructure (2017 in Astana, Kazahstan) and on global water preservation, utilization and development (2019 in Jakarta, Indonesia).

Dr. Matthews is also an artist and encourages students to look at intersections between art and social justice. While her own art focuses on exploring the world through landscape and cityscape travel photography, when teaching in Miami and New York City Matthews took students to engage with art exhibits and to meet artists whose works speak to current issues of social justice, as a way to bring present day into the writing classroom. Throughout her career thus far, Dr. Matthews has always been student focused, from creating a group for international students when teaching at the University of Miami to founding a group for first generation college students when teaching in New York City. These previous experiences and passions led Dr. Matthews to get involved with Henry Ford College’s Henry J. Bowers Focus Group since moving to Michigan in 2021.