Tim’m West

Executive Director, LGBTQ Institute

Tim’m T. West is a pioneering author, poet, educator, and Hip Hop artist who can be best described as a Renaissance man, leveraging a broad and diverse set of skills and interests to advocate for marginalized communities. Prior to his role leading the LGBTQ Institute, he served as Senior Managing Director for Teach For America’s National Prism Alliances, which advances safer and more supportive classrooms for students and their educators. Notably, Tim’m served on the inaugural Programming Board for the LGBTQ Institute; and since 2020, has been a foundational part of NCCHR’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion team. A seasoned and skilled facilitator and public speaker, Tim’m has lectured and spoken on a range of social justice issues at colleges and universities for two decades.

Since returning to his hometown of Cincinnati in 2017, Tim’m has served his community as a CPS Strategic Planning and Engagement Committee member, a Wordplay Board member and current BoardChair, and Chair of the Chase Elementary LSDMC (2019-present), among other points of engagement. Tim’m taught at both secondary and post-secondary institutions, including Oakland School for the Arts, Cesar Chavez in Washington, DC, Humboldt State University, and Houston Community College. No stranger to the youth development and youth leadership space, Tim’m served as Director of Youth Services at Center on Halsted, Chicago’s LGBTQ center and the largest in the Midwest.

A graduate of Duke, The New School, and Stanford universities, Tim’m has recorded two seasons of the Brave Educator podcast, in addition to continuing creative projects. In 2015 Tim’m was named an LGBT Icon during LGBT History Month, and in 2018 Tim’m released his definitive music anthology, Prodigal Son, which captures 20 years of Hip Hop soul music across 6 solo projects. As a creative, an advocate, and scholar, Tim’m is excited to bring strengths in strategic planning, community mobilization, and patnership development to build upon the mission of the LGBTQ Institite. Raised in Arkansas, and the son of parents who hail respectively from Applachia and the Ark-La-Tex regions, Tim’m is currently co-located between Cincinnati, OH and Atlanta, GA.