Ronald Chisom is co-founder of The People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond and a senior fellow of Ashoka’s Global Academy, a program for men and women seeking solutions for the world’s most urgent social problems. He has organized workers and poor people throughout the South for over thirty-five years. In the 1990s, he co-founded and was associate director of the Treme Community Improvement Association, which won several significant Louisiana victories in New Orleans. His legal suit, Ronald Chisom v. Charles E. Roemer, Governor of Louisiana et al., challenged the Louisiana Supreme Court to achieve equal representation for the predominately Black city of New Orleans.

Ron has served as an organizer, advisor, lecturer and consultant to a wide variety of community, legal, and church groups. He has led numerous workshops around the country on Undoing Racism®, community organizing, and leadership and strategy development. His networking and community organizing extends throughout the United States and South Africa. His many prestigious awards include: the Bannerman Fellowship, the Petra Foundation Award, the Pax Christi Bread & Roses, and the Tenant Resource Center Achievement Award. In 2006, Ron was selected as a senior fellow and inducted into Ashoka’s Global Academy.

Ron is married to Jerolie Encalade Chisom and has one daughter, Tiphanie Chisom-Eugene, a son-in-law, Cory, Sr. and is the proud grandfather of Jessica and C. J. (Cory Jr.).