Dawoud Bey has been a member of the Urban Gateways Board of Directors since 2011, and is now an Honorary Member. He is an American photographer and educator renowned for his large-scale color portraits of adolescents and other often marginalized subjects. He studied at the School of Visual Arts in New York from 1977–78, graduated with a BFA in Photography from Empire State College in 1990, and received his MFA from Yale University School of Art in 1993. Over the course of his career, Dawoud has participated in more than 20 artist residencies, which have allowed him to work directly with the adolescent subjects of his most recent work. Currently living in Chicago, he is a Professor of Art and Distinguished College Artist at Columbia College Chicago, and is represented by Mary Boone Gallery (NYC), Rena Bransten Gallery (San Francisco), and Stephen Daiter Gallery (Chicago).