Felix Levon James, Esq.

      Felix received his B.A. from Syracuse University, J.D. from Rutgers University—Camden School of Law and studied at the University of the Western Cape in Cape Town, South Africa. While in South Africa, Felix volunteered as a law clerk for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Cape Town headed by Bishop Tutu. Prior to studying law, Felix worked for 15 years in the business community and was responsible for monitoring and tracking over $56 billion in assets. Currently, Felix is the President and CEO of Ready or Not, LLC, founded in April 2007. The company develops crisis information management systems for K-12 schools, private entities and state and local governments. Prior to joining Ready or Not, LLC, Felix was an Associate Provost at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey Camden Campus.

    During his tenure at Rutgers—Camden, Felix co-founded the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Award for Social Justice and Equality to honor legal professionals for their contribution to society.  He also established a service-learning collaborative with the University of Havana. The collaborative centered on improving the life chances of Cuban and United States citizens living in impoverished communities.

     In cooperation with the Constitutional Court of South Africa and a United States Federal Magistrate Judge, Felix developed and coordinated a history making program—“The International Judicial and Judicial Clerkship Development Program”. Launched in September 2005, it provides a unique opportunity for collaboration and exchange between the Constitutional Court of South Africa, the United States Federal Courts and Rutgers University School of Law.

     Felix also directed and coordinated the $1.2 Million Rutgers Fairview Neighborhood Project (RFNP). The project contributed to long-term, sustainable improvement in the economic, social, public safety and educational opportunities afforded to Fairview’s residents. The RFNP model contributed to systemic change in Fairview.

     Felix also coordinated the KHULA Project with $1.5 million from Lucent Technologies, Inc. KHULA partnered Rutgers and Southern Universities from the U.S. with Rhodes and Vista Universities, and the Universities of Fort Hare and Port Elizabeth, in South Africa. KHULA trained 180 teachers, representing 60 High Schools serving the historically disadvantage areas in the Eastern Cape Province, to use computer technology as a medium for teaching math and sciences. Moreover, each high school was given a computer lab fully equipped with twice the capacity originally proposed. The project was heralded as a national model of corporate social responsibility by the South African Government.

     For his commitment to excellence and community, Felix has received numerous awards and recognition including (among others): recipient of the 2005 prestigious Eisenhower Fellowship, (the first recipient from the State of New Jersey in the fifty plus history of the fellowship). Felix is fond of quoting, “Nothing is impossible, impossibility just measures the degree of difficulty.” Author unknown.