The Founding Director
Kokrobitey Institute was founded in 1989 by Renée C. Neblett, an educator and artist. Ms Neblett is a dedicated and active artist and educator committed to expanding our sense of a world worth knowing about to include Africa's broad resources.

Ms. Neblett grew up in Massachusetts and was an active participant in the civil rights movement. Her early teaching included in a Montessori School, Headstart, and Upward Bound. In 1971, she worked with the Advisory of the Open Education in Cambridge; a group of educators led by Dr. Allan Leitman that experimented with designing educational materials for elementary schools, and she later became the director of the Highland Park New School for Children. From Cambridge, Ms. Neblett moved to Düsseldorf, West Germany, to pursue her interest in Arts. She completed her studies at the Künst Akademie with Professor Konrad Klapeck and exhibited extensively throughout Europe. During this period, Ms. Neblett was a featured artist in the Film Industry documentary ‘‘American Artists in Europe’’, produced by German Educational Television, and in the film series and book ‘’Grafische Druck Techniken’’ by Johann Fricke.

While in Germany, Ms. Neblett taught in the department of Art and English at the International School in Düsseldorf and began a long collaboration with the English artist and educator, Richard Caston focused on exploring the value of Arts as a way of thinking and learning. This collaboration resulted in a text entitled ‘’Arts for the High School; An Art Curriculum for High School Educators.’’

In 1985, Ms. Neblett returned to the United States as a Bunting Fellow of Radcliffe College, Harvard University. She continued as a visiting scholar at Harvard Graduate School of education, joining Howard Gardner to work as a researcher on ‘Project Zero’. Following Harvard, Ms. Neblett joined the faculties at Wheelock College and Milton Academy. Ms. Neblett founded the African American History and Culture Club in 1986 and in 1987 began an extensive research project into the feasibility of establishing an educational program in West Africa, to address the absence of the ‘Old World’ of Africa from American curricula.

As a result of her research, Kokrobitey Institute was incepted in 1989 as a private educational institution. It is Ms. Nebletts vision that led to the foundation of Kokrobitey, and her passion today that maintains the Institute as a center bridging Africa with an international community of educators and students

Educational Qualifications – Renée C. Neblett
• University of Massachusetts, 1965 – 1968

• Gardener Cox Study Grant, Guyana and Surinam, 
  South America, 1969;

• Certificate of Montessori Education, 1971

• M. Ed., Goddard College, 1974–1976

• Orange Park Painter’s Workshop, Yallas, St. Thomas, Jamaica

• Study with painter Barrington Watson, 1976; Kunst Akademie,

• University of Dusseldorf, B.F.A, M.F.A, 1977–1983

• Bunting Fellow, Radcliffe College, 1985 –1987

• Harvard Graduate School of Education, Associate Researcher, Project Zero.