Dr. Lateef McLeod is building his career as a writer and a scholar. He is a senior community research associate at Oregon Health and Science University in their University Center in Excellence in Developmental Disabilities. He has earned a BA in English from UC Berkeley and an MFA in Creative Writing from Mills College. He also recently obtained his doctorate from the Anthropology and Social Change doctoral program at California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco graduating at the end of 2024. He was the ISAAC Lead Chair from 2016 to 2020 and then again from 2024 to 2026. He published his first poetry book, entitled A Declaration of A Body Of Love, in 2010 chronicling his life as a black man with a disability. He also published another poetry book, entitled Whispers of Krip Love, Shouts of Krip Revolution, in 2020. He co-authored another book of poetry called Studies in Brotherly Love in 2021. He currently is writing a novel tentatively entitled The Cool Status of Normal. He was in the 2007, 2016, 2020, and 2024 annual theater performances of Sins Invalid and also in their artist-in-residence performance in 2011 entitled Residence Alien. In 2019 he started a podcast entitled Black Disabled Men Talk. The podcast website is Black Disabled Men Talk . In 2022 he was an award recipient of the Wynn Newhouse Award for his long career as a disabled artist. More of his writings are available on his website lateefhmcleod.com.