From poverty to crime. From prison to Princeton. From entrepreneur to educator. Through it all, Yusuf Dahl has remained a creator, educator, and activator of ideas, programs, and spaces. 

Growing up in poverty, Yusuf fell under the wing of his brother who taught him how to survive on his own on the streets of Milwaukee. By age 14, he was in juvenile detention for a three-year sentence where he learned the best path to wealth creation in his community was drug dealing.

Upon his release, Yusuf adeptly followed his business plan and soon was operating a network of drug houses across Milwaukee before being sentenced to ten-and-a-half years in prison.

After serving five years and teaching himself software development, Yusuf struggled to find a living wage as a young black male with a criminal record. He eventually found meaningful work, but when confronted with a foreclosure crisis destroying his community, he took his future into his own hands as an investor and advocate. With limited capital and experience, he founded Milwaukee Metro Management (MMM), an award-winning affordable housing development and management company, with a vision of creating high-quality affordable housing. From a single two-family property in one of Milwaukee’s poorest zip codes, MMM grew to over 200 residential and commercial units.

Elected as president of the largest apartment owners trade association in the state of Wisconsin, Yusuf worked tirelessly for legislative solutions on some of his industry’s toughest challenges.

Yusuf was a graduate fellow at the Center for Information and Technology Policy at Princeton University, where he earned a Master of Public Administration (MPA) degree and has been awarded fellowships from Google and Tata Consultancy Services in Kolkata, India. 

Yusuf is the CEO of The Century Promise and co-founder of the Real Estate Lab in Allentown, PA. Additionally, he is leading the national effort to repeal the Thurmond Amendment, legislation introduced by the ardent segregationist Strom Thurmond that creates lifelong housing barriers for individuals with drug distribution convictions.