Alton James, Ph.D. has dedicated his career to the education and liberation of disenfranchised and underrepresented peoples through the medium of storytelling utilizing both words and music. Despite accompanying and leading choirs around the Metro-Detroit area, his approach overall approach to storytelling may seem unconventional given his background. Having earned his B.A. in English with Minors in African-American Studies and Music from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor (U of M), Alton followed with an M.A. in Educational Leadership and Policy at U of M as well. Upon graduation, Alton taught English and Music for both middle and high school students in Detroit. While still honing his music composition abilities, Alton served as an administrator at Wayne State University while earning his Ed.S. and Ph.D. in Educational Leadership and Policy. Along the way, Alton founded the company J IV Media, which provides music and audio services for visual media. Through his personal ethos of moving people through storytelling, Alton continues to accomplish this through authorship (as he actively publishes literature), scholarship, and by composing music for television and film. It is for this reason that he refers to himself as the “Sonic Storyteller.”