Wayne Mellinger - Profile and Journalist Details
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Wayne Mellinger
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Social Justice Educator, Writer and Activist, Noozhawk
Santa Barbara
Beats
Biography
Wayne Martin Mellinger came to Santa Barbara to do graduate work in Sociology at UC-Santa Barbara and received his Ph.D in 1990. His areas of concentration include critical social theories, qualitative research methodologies and social psychology / micro-sociology. He subsequently taught at the Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz and Berkeley campuses of the University of California, the Fielding Graduate University, Ventura College and Antioch University Santa Barbara. He has long been interested in power, inequality, oppression and domination and is an outspoken social justice activist for numerous causes. Passionate about critical pedagogy, Wayne envisions classrooms as sites of liberation in which oppression can be unlearned and all can become “allies” in the struggles for social justice. A psychological breakdown in 1999 left him psychotic, addicted and living on the streets. Through these events Wayne discovered that he has bipolar disorder. Subsequently he worked as a social worker helping those with mental illness transition off the streets. He has worked for WillBridge of Santa Barbara, the Safe Parking Program, New Beginnings Counseling Center, Casa Esperanza (now PATH) and Transition House (where he managed their program on Homelessness Prevention). This journey has allowed him to bear witness to innumerable social injustices, and lead him to become involved in mental health and homeless policy issues. Wayne is committed to empowering those who are marginalized, displaced and silenced to have a voice in policy decisions at the community level. To those ends, he is active in community affairs and sits on the boards of Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE SB), the County’s Behavioral Wellness Commission, the County’s Continuum of Care (housing policy for our unhoused neighbors) as well as the boards of Showers of Blessings, the Committee for Social Justice. He was greatly honored to join Social Venture Partners-Santa Barbara—a local think tank prominent on matters of housing and homelessness. Wayne has been a member of the Unitarian Society of Santa Barbara since 2005. He has been exploring the intersections of science and religion in a series of essays on Religious Naturalism which he hopes to turn into a book, tentatively titled The New Religions of Nature: Re-Imagining Religion During the Anthropocene. He blogs about Nature Religions at thedionysiannaturalist.blogspot.com.
New Religious Movements , Everyday Life, Unitarian Universalism , Inequality And Oppression, Social Psychology, American Religion , Power, Nature , Religions , Housing Justice, Social Justice Movements
Sex advice, technology, quantum physics
Content
Company Info
Noozhawk
Santa Barbara, California, United States
'+1 805-456-7267
Founded: 2007