James’ personal mission is to realize the potential of music-making as a force for social change, community building, and personal wellbeing. Following a time as a composer, arranger and keyboardist in Los Angeles Jamescompleted his PhD in Music: Integrative Studies in 2019 from University of California, San Diego, where he was a Cota-Robles Fellow, and was a Frederick Douglass Teaching Scholars Fellow at Kutztown University. He is currently a teaching fellow within Harvard's Mind-Brain-Behavior Initiative, and a Visiting Assistant Teaching Professor within Northeastern University's music department. His research interests include music theory pedagogy, embodied cognition, community music, and more. His work has been published by the Frontiers in Psychology, Frontiers in Education, and College Music Symposium.