Ozivell Ecford

Ozivell is a third-year doctoral candidate in Learning Sciences at Northwestern University, studying how interdisciplinary arts empower marginalized communities to heal from trauma and develop self-agency. With over twenty years of experience as an award-winning educator in multimedia design, music, theatre, and curriculum development, he serves as lead teaching artist and student researcher for Shakespeare Behind Bars (SBB) at the Illinois Youth Center in Chicago.
Through his SBB research, Ozivell made a significant discovery in the field of Learning Sciences. His paper, "To Be or Not to Be: A Study on Shakespeare, Incarcerated Youth, and Future Orientation," identified four new types of future orientation among incarcerated youth, which he named the Cross-Dimensional Future Orientation (CDFO) Framework. He presented this research at the 2025 International Conference of Learning Sciences (ICLS) in Helsinki, Finland, where it was published by the International Society of Learning Sciences and nominated for an Outstanding Student Paper award. The same paper received Best Paper and Presentation honors at the University of Illinois's 16th Annual Graduate Student Conference.
In 2024, Ozivell co-authored "Observing Joy: An Observation Protocol to Assess Joyful Learning in STEAM Classrooms," presented at AERA 2025 in Denver. In Spring 2025, he received the Lader Family Scholarship from the Chicago Lighthouse for the Blind and the Jim Reilly Reformer Scholarship from Choose Chicago Foundation. In April of 2026, Ozivell will be presenting his paper: GSB: Reimagining Adult Literacy with Dignity and Humanity.” GSB stands for Grow/Share/Belong, a program co-designed and facilitated by Heather Lindahl (Co-author of the paper) and Ozivell at the Evanston Public Library to help adults who struggle with literacy.
As the lead facilitator for Northwestern's Cities Project, Ozivell trains undergraduates to serve as mental health educational facilitators and researchers. He also serves as a co-curriculum developer and facilitator for the D65 Coded Beats program, and helps produce their annual showcase and Bit Crush Challenge. Lastly, Ozivell will be inducted into the Edward A. Bouchet Graduate Honor Society in April of 2026. The award recognizes Ozivell’s academic excellence and extraordinary leadership. It is one of Northwestern University’s most prestigious honors to bestow.