Dr. Bernard Franklin is a nationally recognized thought leader on issues confronting urban trauma and violence, mental health, resilience, boys and men’s development, and K-12 and higher education issues. His 40-year career includes leadership at five higher education institutions and a Kansas City philanthropy. In 2022 Franklin completed a Fellowship with Harvard’s Advanced Leadership Initiative focused on urban mental health research, specifically violent and marginalized urban individuals. Franklin is Managing Director of Uncornered, a Boston-based organization transforming urban communities into violence-free neighborhoods.
Franklin earned an MS in Counseling and Behavioral Studies from the University of South Alabama, and a PhD in Counseling and Higher Education Administration, with an outside emphasis in family studies from Kansas State University. He also earned a Master’s Professional Training Certificate focused on the trauma/resilience theory model of Trust-Based Relational Intervention (TBRI) from Texas Christian University. He served as Chaplin and member of the NFL Kansas City Chiefs professional counseling team.
Franklin was twice honored among the 100 Most Influential African Americans in Kansas City. The Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce honored him with its Distinguished Leadership Award for contributions to urban education, and the Kansas City Downtown Council awarded him “Urban Hero” for his urban public education work. In addition, the Morehouse College Research Institute presented him with the Vision Award for “pioneering work in the area of educating men on the importance of fatherhood.”
