Ronald (or “Towns, as most call him) has a B.A. in Statistics and Secondary Education from Columbia University, and a Masters of Education and Teacher Leadership from Elmhurst College. He has been a teacher for ten years, as a Fulbright Bilingual Program Instructor in Spain, and as a department chair and coach in schools in Chicago, Oakland, and San Francisco.

Three years ago, he co-founded Camp Common Ground, a non-profit organization that disrupts cycles of racial and economic segregation in the Bay Area.  Each summer, Camp Common Ground brings a group of 30 diverse youth together for summer and school-year programming. They learn: (a) about identity and privilege; (b) empathy skills to build relationships across cultural lines understand the perspective of others, and (c) how to employ conflict resolution and non-violent communication skills to address exclusionary norms at their schools.

Towns was awarded a Truman Scholarship for his leadership at Columbia University and a Golden Apple Scholar Finalist award for excellence in teaching in Illinois. He lives by Lake Merritt and loves to try new restaurants and cafes in his neighborhood.