Dr. Curtis Haynes Jr. – Professional Biography
Dr. Curtis Haynes Jr. is the Executive Director for the Center for Economics and Education (CEE) at Buffalo State College and is president and founder of the Conscious Investment Group (CIG) also of Buffalo NY. The CEE mission is to “popularize prosperity economics in theory policy and practice. The CIG is dedicated to financial and economic education, generating employment and the targeted administration of venture capital. These priorities of both institutions are an outgrowth of extensive research in participatory and applied approaches to economic development in an urban environment.
Haynes received his formal education in economics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and is an Associate Professor of Economics at Buffalo Sate College. He was introduced to popular education teaching techniques through the Center of Popular Economics, based in Amherst Massachusetts. His scholarship and teaching skills were honed while the “Distinguished Visiting Scholar,” at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York. In 1993 he started a teaching and applied research career at Buffalo State College, Buffalo NY. A consummate activist economist, Haynes has worked on bringing his theoretical training and teaching method in line with skills in the area of participatory and applied research in community economic development and revitalization.
This internationally known scholar has given numerous presentations on cooperative economics, community economic development, black political economy, urban economic development, industrial organization and now prosperity economics.
As an educator Dr. Haynes has over thirty years experience using popular education tools as applied to the field of economics. He has received both community and campus recognition for his skill and commitment. He was voted “Instructor of the Year,” by the United Student Government of Buffalo State College in the back-to-back years; 2000 and 2001 and again in 2006.
Dr. Haynes has published in several books and journals. Topics have ranged from “The Ghettoization of the African American and the Potentials for Economic Reform” Proceedings of the First National Conference on Urban Issues, to “A Case Study in Cooperative Economics and Community Development,” an essay co-authored with Gary Welborn in the 1997, book Self-Transformation of the Forgotten Four-Fifths. Dr. Haynes published, “The Labor Market and Black Teenage Unemployment,” in Readings in Black Political Economy, and has two joint essays with Jessica GordonNembhard. The first is entitled “Cooperative Economics – A Community Revitalization Strategy,” Review of Black Political Economy, The second is entitled “Using Mondragon as a Model for African American Urban Redevelopment,” From Community Economic Development and Ethnic Entrepreneurship to Economic Democracy: The Cooperative Alternative, PFMI (Partnership for Multiethnic Inclusion). An important essay, “A Democratic Cooperative Enterprise System: A Response to Urban Economic Decay,” was first published in the scholarly Journal Ceteris Paribus, and reprinted in the 1996 International Institute for Self Management Basque Conference Journal. In 2006 he published a book review of the Conrad et al. book titled African Americans in the U.S. Economy, in the Black Scholar Journal of Black Studies and Research. In 2010 he published a commentary on Black Political Economy in the Journal of Philosophical Economics. Forth coming is his “Journey of Economic and Spiritual Man: A treaties on Social Reproduction, Economics and Applied Psychology.”

In applied research Dr. Haynes was a co-founder of the Resurgent City Center for Cooperative Community Development (RCC) – a $400,000 HUD funded Community Outreach Partnership Center (COPC) dedicated to community revitalization through cooperative economics and housed at Buffalo State College. Haynes partnered the relationship between RCC and the OUR Market Project, a broad based grassroots effort to open a community owned and operated super market on the East Side of Buffalo a primarily African American community. Mobilization catalyzed from this community event eventually manifested in a police station on Fillmore and Ferry and a Tops Super Market on Jefferson Ave Buffalo NY.
Haynes, as principle innovator, also mentored a rotating class of students through the Conscious Investment Club. The activities of this club had a strong impact on all participants, as many of them moved on to participate in real estate and business ventures of their own. Haynes for his part became a partner and founder of the Mondragon Village Association (MVA), a real estate development/investment company with holdings in affordable housing in the lower West Side and commercial property in the heart of Buffalo New York’s historic district – the West Village.
In 2010 Haynes was appointed City Council Member representing the Ellicott District, one of the most racially, ethnically and economically diverse Council Districts, ranging from the lower East Side, West Side and Downtown areas of the City of Buffalo. As councilmember, Haynes was a strong advocate of unified neighborhood responses to the expansion of the downtown Medical Corridor and the growth of the Canal Side tourist area. Haynes believed and believes that economic development and community development should go hand in hand with local community participation in both employment and wealth generation opportunities.
Haynes studied leadership concepts through over 30 years of martial arts training, rooted in Go Ju Ryu karate. Haynes, a 6th Degree black belt currently teaches karate as a Civil Art. Haynes is also an amateur clarinetist.

Haynes speaking on “Spiritual Economics” Annual Reception, Black Chamber of Commerce of Western NY, Summer 2012.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10ByJ-CSGj4

Haynes speaking at Buffalo Poverty Research Workshop Spring 2010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKzSs_TeXEk

Haynes accepting appointment to, City of Buffalo Common Council January 2010.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZoVVFYN-lk