My Second Wind of Activism: Unbroken, Unbowed and Unbought

As a Professor Emeritus of a major university, Norman set out to write his memoirs until he was introduced to a volunteer experience that set him on a course of activism for the next 20 years.

That activism would take him to the United Kingdom where he would engage in an historic African Asian Solidarity Conference, aimed at securing the rights of Ethnic and Religious minorities in the forthcoming European Union.

Alex Norman, having taken an early retirement from a distinguished academic career in 1991, relocated to a seaside community in 1999 to write his memoirs and develop an independent consulting business in organization development.

For the next 22 years, he engaged in civic activities as an organizer, researcher, public policy practitioner and citizen activist to advocate and empower people at the neighborhood level, to secure their rights against powerful City interest groups.

Alex J Norman, D.S.W., held several jobs during his activist career, as a Community Organizer, Non-profit organization and Public Service Administrator, University Department Director and Professor of Social Welfare during a 23-year tenure at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs and an International Scholar at the University of Wales at Swansea, the University of Bristol, England and the University of the West of England at Bristol. His post-academic career included 25 years as an Independent Organization Development Consultant and civic-minded volunteer.

He served on several boards of organizations in Long Beach, among them the Long Beach Museum of Art, the Long Beach Community Action Partnership, the Long Beach Community Foundation, and the Josephine S Gumbiner Foundation. He was also the Co-founder of Re-Thinking Greater Long Beach and The Advanced Organizing Institute.