Roger Brooks has served as President and CEO of Facing History & Ourselves since 2014, leading our dynamic staff, boards, and volunteer leaders. Over 200 people across the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom look to Roger’s steady stewardship.
His first major undertaking with the organization was the launch of an ambitious strategic plan designed to dramatically increase our audiences and areas of study. Roger also prioritized the formal integration of diversity, equity, and inclusion practices at Facing History, establishing an Office of Equity and Inclusion and emphasizing improvements in hiring and workplace culture assessments. Additionally, he expanded Facing History’s digital footprint, increasing our ability to make our curricular materials more accessible to more teachers and offer virtual professional development.
Roger is committed to growing Facing History’s outreach in schools while building a world class workplace culture where employees feel supported and excited to help teachers and their students stand up to bigotry and hate. His guidance has also elevated Facing History’s position as a thought leader around the importance of history education.
Before joining Facing History, Roger enjoyed a distinguished tenure at Connecticut College as the Elie Wiesel Professor in the department of Religious Studies (1991-2014). An expert in early rabbinic culture, he is the author or editor of six books and numerous articles. Roger also has a long standing partnership with the Holocaust Education Foundation at Northwestern University which prepares collegiate faculty to teach curriculum related to the Holocaust and genocide. He received their Distinguished Achievement Award in 2014.
Roger received a PhD from Brown University and a BES from the University of Minnesota.
