Advocating and Spreading Mental Health Awareness

Jesse Lee Crumbley III, Ph.D. was born in Kankakee IL, and raised in the Northwest Suburbs of Chicago. As a child, he experienced his fair share of trauma which would lead to undiscovered and unaddressed mental health issues as a teenager and young adult. Struggling with identity and association issues because of his trauma, religious upbringing and beliefs, sexuality, and Blackness, he often felt like he had no one to talk to. In December of 2017, Jesse finally received professional help to address his mental heal concerns. Since then. Dr. Crumbley has been on a mission to be an advocate of the importance of having the courage to address such matters in the Black and Queer community through The Courage Culture, Inc., a non-profit organization he founded in 2019.

Dr. Crumbley received his Bachelors in Business Administration, Master of Business Administration, and Master of Organizational Leadership from St. Ambrose University, a private Catholic University. While at Ambrose he served as the President of the Graduate Student Government Association and a member of the Board of Trustees, working closely with Sister Joan Liscenski, the first female President of the University. In 2014, he was awarded the Graduate Student of the Year Award for his dedication and hard work toward education and leadership abilities at such a young age of 25. On Juneteenth, 2021 in Atlanta Georgia, Jesse successfully defended his dissertation; receiving his Ph.D. in Business Administration with an emphasis in Organizational Behavior and Development from Northcentral University. His dissertation is entitled Millennial Leadership: A Phenomenological Assessment into the Preparedness of the Millennial Leader.

Dr. Crumbley is the Founder and Cheif Executive Consultant of Forward Leading and Management Consulting, LLC. a business consulting firm dedicated to leading the vision of business leaders forward to the change and advancement of the future. He is also the Founder of The Courage Culture – the Podcast. He is the son of, his namesake, Jesse Lee Crumbley Jr. and Loretta Burns, and the proud father of Shaleeah Grace. Dr. Crumbley is a gifted musician, classically trained in piano and voice, cook, and aspiring author. In his free time, he loves to write and create music, research and write scholarly, cook, and spend time with his partner and daughter!