Ange-Marie Hancock Alfaro is a tenured professor of Gender Studies, Political Science and Sociology at the University of Southern California and CEO of RISIST, the Research Institute for the Study of Intersectionality and Social Transformation, a new online certification and collaboration platform. RISIST is a cooperative social enterprise that consults with organizations seeking to apply intersectionality to the challenges they face in analyzing interlocking systems of inequality and transforming their organizations into ones that “walk the walk” in their recruitment, leadership development and retention policies. RISIST consolidates 15 years of work done by Dr. Hancock across the country to consult with and train individuals, groups and organizations in intersectionality.
In 1993, under the mentorship of NBA Hall of Famer Tom “Satch” Sanders, Hancock Alfaroconducted the original survey research and designed the business model for the Women’s National Basketball Association. The only women’s professional basketball league to succeed in the United States, the WNBA will begin its 20th season in May 2016.
Today Hancock Alfaro is a globally recognized scholar of intersectionality theory, the world's leading analytical framework for analyzing and resolving inequality. She has written three books on the intersections of categories of difference like race, gender, class, sexuality and citizenship and their impact on policy: the award-winning The Politics of Disgust and the Public Identity of the “Welfare Queen,” (2004), Solidarity Politics for Millennials: A Guide to Ending the Oppression Olympics (2011) and Intersectionality: An Intellectual History (2015).
