David Olawuyi Fakunle, Ph.D. is a “mercenary for change,” employing the necessary skills and occupying the necessary spaces to help strengthen everyone divested from their truest self, particularly those who identify as Black, Indigenous and/or a Person of Color. David serves as Assistant Professor of Public and Allied Health at the Morgan State University School of Community Health & Policy, Associate Faculty in Mental Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and formerly as Adjunct Assistant Professor at the University of Florida Center for Arts in Medicine. David’s interests include stressors within the built environment, manifestations of systemic oppression, and the utilization of arts and culture to cultivate holistic health through humanity, justice, equity and ultimately, liberation.

Additionally, David has applied artistic and cultural practices such as Black storytelling, African drumming, singing and theater in the proclamation of truth for over 25 years, collaborating primarily with organizations in the Baltimore/Washington, D.C. region. Among many affiliations, David is co-founder and CEO of DiscoverME/RecoverME, an organization that utilizes the African oral tradition to empower use of storytelling for healing and growth, previously served as Executive Director of WombWork Productions, a Baltimore-based social change performing arts company, currently serves as Director of the T.E.A.C.H. (Transforming Equity through Arts, Culture & Health) Department at The National Great Blacks In Wax Museum, and serves as Chair of the Maryland Lynching Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the first state-level commission in the U.S. dedicated to chronicling and bringing justice to racial terror lynchings.