Tim Huffman

Tim is a researcher, teacher and activist.

As a researcher, he studies social justice and organizing focuses on topics like community, compassion, and social justice in nonprofit organizations. He takes a participatory action, qualitative approach to research design and strive to help communities discover creative ways to improve organized action.

As a teacher, he takes a socially-engaged experimental learning approach. He facilitates connections between his students and organizations in the community, which both improves learning objectives and allows students to make an impact.

As an activist, he works to help communities flourish and promote social justice. Most recently he has worked within the context of homeless issues. He currently serve as the executive director of StandUp For Kids Phoenix, an organization that provides outreach to homeless youth.

As it turns out, research, teaching, and community action are highly interrelated. Good research improves community action by providing theory-based practices and improves teaching by providing up to date knowledge. Good teaching improves research by inspiring new questions and improves community action by enabling student impact. Finally, community action improves teaching by giving students hands on experience and exposure to social issues and improves research by making methods more sensitive and effective.

Ultimately, it is in the intersection between teaching, research, and community action that Dewey’s (1939) project of creative democracy becomes clear. By mutually considering practical, theoretical, and justice components of knowledge, we move dynamically toward betters societies. Each of the three is a critical component in a discourse that ever moves human experience toward more ordered richness.