David Grant is completing his second year of doctoral studies at the University of Central Florida majoring in Exceptional Student Education.  He is a native of St. Louis, Missouri and completed his undergraduate degree in management from Saint Louis University in 1993.  He received a Mater of Arts degree in Varying Exceptionalities from the University of Central Florida in 2003.  His educational career has included teaching students with emotional and behavioral disorders and his research focus is in the effects of positive African American men as role models and mentors to African American male youths and adolescents in urban settings.