Rockwood is proud to announce our inaugural 2024 Fellowship for Leaders in Higher Education in Prison, in partnership with Ascendium. This brand-new Fellowship was created to deepen the pipeline of formerly incarcerated leaders in the sector by centering the justice-impacted leaders advancing change. Bringing together 24 leaders nationwide engaged in Higher Education in Prison initiatives, the Fellowship will increase leadership capacity, strengthen relationships within and across the sector, and create fertile grounds for leaders to engage in powerfully collaborative and interconnected ways.
Please join us in welcoming and congratulating the 2024 Fellowship for Leaders in Higher Education in Prison cohort.
Omari is a formerly incarcerated father of six who holds 30 felony convictions and four college degrees. He was released from prison in 2008 at the age of 23 with a GED that opened the door for him to transform his life through post-secondary education. Omari currently serves as the director of Husky Post Prison Pathways (HP3) at the University of Washington’s Tacoma Campus (UWT). HP3 is still being developed and will be launching Fall Quarter 2024. The HP3 program model involves going inside prisons in the state of Washington to introduce and explore possibilities for incarcerated individuals and create pathways to attending UWT upon release. Incarcerated scholars will participate in both group workshops and one-on-one support/guidance aimed at self-discovery and determining/pursuing possible future versions of themselves.
Terrell is a well-respected and frequently sought after leader in the higher education and justice space. He is co-founder and founding executive director of the Formerly Incarcerated College Graduates Network (FICGN), a nonprofit that helps people directly impacted by incarceration achieve post-prison success in education and careers through support services and advocacy. Terrell brings over 20 years experience as a leader in his profession and his community, being selected as an American Express Leadership Fellow in 2019, the Executives in Residence in 2021 (JFF), and was awarded the Black Boy Influencer Award by Academy365 in 2022. His background in policy advocacy and technical assistance (Vera Institute of Justice), philanthropy (Laughing Gull Foundation), federal grants (Bureau of Justice Assistance), and college reentry programs (NJ-STEP) positions him as a well-rounded expert in the field. Terrell earned his BA in Communication and MPA both from Rutgers University.
Barbi Brown | Director of Policy and Practice, Tennessee Higher Education Initiative
Barbi joined the Tennessee Higher Education Initiative (THEI) in 2020, and is currently serving as the Director of Policy and Practice. In her role, she works with and for directly impacted individuals as we seek to overcome the current systems of mass incarceration and perpetual punishment and to create pathways of equitable access to higher education. In addition to Barbi’s role with THEI, she is a Justice Policy Fellow with The Education Trust and is also actively involved with The Southern HEP Collective, Tennessee Prison College Coalition, and Unlock Higher Education where she advocates for policy change within the Higher Education in Prison field. Barbi earned a Bachelor of Professional Studies from Lipscomb University where she remains an actively engaged alumni of Lipscomb’s Initiative for Education (LIFE) program.
David was the first incarcerated individual to teach college courses for a university while serving a life sentence. He earned an MBA during his time in prison and went on to become an adjunct professor, teaching courses through Adams State University. David’s commitment to education extended beyond prison; even after being granted clemency, he chose to continue teaching college courses to incarcerated individuals for Adams State University and Red Rocks Community College, emphasizing the transformative power of education in the face of adversity. David’s journey is a testament to resilience, redemption, and the belief in second chances.
JC is a dedicated leader and advocate in the field of Higher Education in Prison. Since 2017, he has been a vital part of Project Rebound at California State University, Fullerton, currently serving as its executive director. His personal experience of enduring 22 years of incarceration fuels his commitment to educational access for incarcerated individuals. JC has been pivotal in developing and expanding programs that offer these opportunities, collaborating with institutions, securing funding, and advocating for policy changes. His work is guided by the belief that education can break the cycle of recidivism and empower individuals, providing hope and new possibilities. Currently pursuing his doctoral degree in Marriage and Family Therapy, JC continues to inspire and lead by example, dedicated to creating a more just and equitable society through the transformative power of education. JC has been recognized for his work and has been featured in numerous publications, articles, podcasts, and media platforms, including a TED Talk with John Legend, TEDx: San Quentin, Now This News, Post-Traumatic Thriving TV series, and CORE IQ educational training videos.
Regina is the Director of Transitions for New Jersey Scholarship and Transformative Education in Prison (NJ-STEP) and is a Licensed Social Worker, a system-impacted practitioner, and an expert in the field of reentry. She specializes in program development and coordination of reentry support services. Regina has been working in the non-profit sector for over a decade advocating for and with marginalized and underrepresented individuals and families. In her role with NJ-STEP, she facilitates reentry support services for NJ-STEP students transitioning to their communities throughout New Jersey post-incarceration. Regina teaches a criminal justice course at Rutgers University, which explores the impacts of postsecondary education on currently and formerly incarcerated people and examines access to higher education as a reentry strategy. She is a graduate of Fordham University Graduate School of Social Service and Rutgers University where she was acknowledged for her leadership in the Mountainview and LGBTQ Communities.
Felicia is the Advocacy Coordinator at Freedom Project, passionately assisting others with barriers related to incarceration, marginalization, and oppression. She graduated in 2023 with her bachelor’s degree in Sociology at the University of Washington, Seattle. As a founding member and alum of the Freedom Education Project Puget Sound (FEPPS), which offers post-secondary education to incarcerated women, Felicia is dedicated to increasing access to higher education for justice-involved individuals. She is also a facilitator for the If Project, aimed at reducing mass incarceration through holistic intervention and the reduction and prevention of incarceration and recidivism. Having been incarcerated at 18 years old and serving a 16.5-year sentence, Felicia uses her personal experience to raise awareness about the impacts of incarceration and advocate for educational opportunities. Additionally, she is a member of the financial subcommittee for the Formerly Incarcerated College Graduate Network (FICGN) and trains the Seattle Police Department on gender responsiveness.
Moseka’s lived experience led her to question, “What happens when the gates open but you’re still not free?” This fuels her to speak out on institutional dehumanization & the collateral consequences that tempt recidivism. After completing her Paralegal Studies in 2021, she relocated to Minneapolis to join The Legal Revolution. A paralegal & community engagement specialist, Moseka’s role has been key to the nonprofit’s success in its inaugural year, facilitating the education of incarcerated legal scholars within MN Dept of Corrections. Her efforts also include speaking in correctional facilities, organizing monthly community education presentations & facilitating monthly support circles. A first-generation Haitian/Congolese/Canadian-American, Moseka is currently studying womanist theology- further exploring themes of personal emancipation, radical authenticity & Black womanhood. Crediting indigenous plant medicines & holistic practices for her continued healing, Moseka feels most fulfilled in ceremony, indulging in sound baths & basking on beaches near & far. Embodying the idea of prosperity after prison, she hopes to inspire others to do the same.
William leads and manages the Justice Policy Fellowship at The Education Trust, where he works with the policy team to provide an equity perspective on higher education in prison issues. Before joining EdTrust, William served as an inaugural Justice Policy Fellow. Before that, William worked with Prison to Professional as a program coordinator, where he recruited program participants, tracked attendance and assignments, and organized a virtual job fair. William also works with Dr. Stanely Andrisse as a research assistant. A native of New York, William grew up in Baltimore, where one wrong decision after another landed him in prison with a life sentence. During his incarceration, he advocated for Second Chance Pell Grants at his facility and he got involved in the Goucher Prison Education Partnership (GPEP). After serving 21 years, he transferred to Goucher’s main campus, where he completed his bachelor’s degree in Sociology/Anthropology and was selected to deliver the commencement for his graduating class.
Alexa’s passion for advocacy is rooted in her personal experience of incarceration and the stigma she faced in her community upon release. On the day she entered the criminal justice system, Alexa promised herself that she would focus on the future and become a voice for meaningful change. It is a promise she continues to keep by participating in advocacy work, contributing to legislative change, and forwarding equitable access to education within the criminal justice system. Alexa earned a BA in business administration from Tarleton State University and became certified as a braille transcriber through the Library of Congress. Alexa is a current graduate student at Texas Woman’s University pursuing a Master’s degree in business administration with a focus on women in leadership.
Lily serves as the Program Director for Project Rebound at California State University, Northridge (CSUN), a support initiative for formerly incarcerated students. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Chicana/o Studies from CSUN in 2017 and completed her Master of Arts in the same field in the summer of 2023. Her research focuses on carceral correspondence. Drawing from two years of correspondence with her daughter, Lily developed an archive that highlights the significance of this medium, documenting the labor of care performed by the community to support incarcerated individuals and their loved ones. Since her release from incarceration, Lily has been actively involved in prison abolitionist work.
Jessica is the Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director of Unlocked Labs. Sentenced to life without parole at age 16, Jessica spent 26 years incarcerated at a prison that had no formal education programs. Desperate to improve herself, she taught herself to code, without the internet. She used these skills, while still in prison, to develop UnlockEd, a learning management system designed to make digital educational content accessible in prison, and founded Unlocked Labs to help others walk in her footsteps. Jessica has been recognized as a Blue Ridge Labs Catalyst, and her work and story have been profiled by The Guardian and The Chronicle for Higher Education.
Shon serves as the Director of Transitional Programs at the Tennessee Higher Education in Prison Initiative (THEI), an organization providing comprehensive support to incarcerated scholars pursuing associate and bachelor’s degrees in Tennessee prisons. With seven years of personal reentry experience, Shon leads a dedicated team of reentry professionals offering individualized transitional services to Higher Education Program students and alumni. Shon’s mission is to help justice-impacted individuals achieve social, economic, and spiritual well-being post-incarceration. He firmly believes in the power of human kindness to nourish those navigating reentry and strives to shift societal narratives by fostering an environment of radical hospitality. Holding a B.S. in Human Development and Learning, an M.Ed. in Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis, and an Ed.S. in Counselor Leadership from East Tennessee State University, Shon’s journey has equipped him with the knowledge and passion to advocate for and support justice-impacted individuals throughout their reentry process.
Lauren as the Director of Adams State University’s Prison Education Program (ASU-PEP), made history in 2022 as the first formerly incarcerated leader of the program. She spearheaded the Turning Graduates Into Instructors Initiative, securing Mellon Foundation funding to hire incarcerated graduates as instructors. She played a crucial role in eliminating the criminal history “box” on admissions applications. A first-generation college graduate from Rutgers University (2018), Lauren has significantly impacted prison education through her work with the Alliance for Higher Education in Prison and Hudson Link. She serves on several boards, including Reaching Untapped Networks, Inc., and Princeton University’s Prison Teaching Initiative, and participates in the Women Transcending Collective Leadership Institute at Columbia University. Additionally, she collaborated with the Ladies of Hope Ministries and was a 2024 Horizons Fellowship Mentor with Jobs for the Future (JFF). Her advocacy is evident through her involvement with various organizations supporting formerly incarcerated individuals.
Karen Jones | Advocate, Goucher Prison Education Partnership
Karen is a writer, speaker, fair chance hiring manager, and advocate for prison reform, focusing on access to postsecondary education for currently and formerly incarcerated individuals. While incarcerated, she attended the Goucher Prison Education Partnership (GPEP) and since her release in 2015 has worked alongside GPEP as consultant, speaker, and mentor. Karen is a member of the Maryland Advisory Committee on Higher Education in Prison (HEP) for the Department of Safety and Correctional Services, reviewing HEP applications and curriculums to be implemented in Maryland state prisons. She is a founding member of the Fair Chances to Opportunity, a consortium that builds relationships between employers and HEP programs. A leader in the higher education and justice space, Karen has experience in policy change and advocacy, program administration, and building coalitions to raise awareness and support for HEP. Karen is a second-generation immigrant who grew up in Washington, DC.
Alyssa is a co-founder and executive director of Freedom Education Project Puget Sound (FEPPS). She has been a part of the program’s concept and implementation since its inception – including seeking accreditation, fundraising and fund development, strategizing around and engaging with the public to garner support for higher education in prison, infrastructure building, and fostering collaborative relationships between DOC and academic institutions. Alyssa has also been involved in the development of supportive pathways from the prison college program to the university campus and am currently working on a plan to create an academic reentry resource hub that would serve the entire state’s population of systems impacted students. She graduated from FEPPS with the first cohort in 2016, and was able to build a gender education series with the support of FEPPS professors. Upon release in 2021, Alyssa went on to complete her BA at the University of Washington.
John is the co-founder and co-executive director of Cre8innovations, where he focuses on supporting marginalized students, particularly those facing housing insecurity and homelessness. Cre8innovations’ goal is to provide stable housing and comprehensive support services, including financial literacy workshops, college preparation programs, job readiness training, and mental health support. His work extends to collaborating with the Underground Scholars Initiative (USI) at UC Berkeley where he develops and implements academic support and mentorship programs for formerly incarcerated and system-impacted students. Additionally, John spearheads advocacy efforts, working with legislative offices to secure funding and support for Cre8Innovations’ initiatives, and builds partnerships with local organizations to enhance our services. Through these efforts, John aims to empower marginalized students to overcome barriers and achieve success in higher education and beyond.
Spencer is currently the Program Lead for the Center for Justice-Impacted Students (CJIS) at Middlesex College in Edison, New Jersey. In his role within the CJIS, he supports incarcerated juvenile students earning their associate’s degree by ensuring the development, administration, and success of the academic programs they participate in. He has done this by leading the CJIS’s Youth Justice Reform Project, a program where Middlesex College’s on-campus justice impacted students collaborate with its incarcerated juvenile students to advance juvenile justice policy efforts, and by developing a debate program that he teaches in-person to incarcerated students. He also offers mentorship and support to the students themselves, ensuring a positive and inclusive learning environment, while regularly assessing and improving the program based on the students’ needs. Spencer strongly believes in the transformative power of higher education in carceral spaces and has dedicated himself to seeing incarcerated students achieve their college goals.
Michelle represents resilience and hope. After enduring 13 years of incarceration, she has been home for nearly two years, tirelessly working to transform her life and the lives of others. She is currently a fellow of the Chillon project at Life University, where she supports individuals returning to society, ensuring they have the tools and opportunities to reintegrate successfully and continue their education once released from prison. She has attended conferences such as the National Conference for Higher Education in Prison, Re-entry symposiums, forums, and other events where she advocates for higher education in prison. Her advocacy extends to urging universities to adopt similar programs, aiming to broaden the impact of education on incarcerated individuals. She is currently in the process of earning a Master’s degree in Positive Psychology and Life Coaching. She is passionate about Higher Education in Prison because it transformed her life while she was incarcerated, and has increased her chances of flourishing.
Ved is a distinguished leader dedicated to addressing the injustices and systemic failures that perpetuate societal harm. As the director of the Alliance for Higher Education in Prison, he spearheads initiatives to enhance postsecondary educational opportunities for incarcerated individuals on a national scale. Central to Ved’s mission is mitigating the collateral consequences of incarceration by facilitating access to meaningful employment, thereby promoting economic mobility and self-sufficiency. He holds a profound belief in the existential power of education, viewing it as a domain where intellectual growth can flourish and where individuals can discover hope, meaning, and purpose in life. In his personal life, Ved is a devoted husband and father to two daughters. He finds solace in family activities, gardening, chess, basketball, four-wheeling, and various outdoor pursuits.
Ramieka is a prominent social justice advocate and the Senior Site Director for the Goucher Prison Education Partnership (GPEP) at Goucher College. She supports incarcerated students pursuing bachelor’s degrees at two Maryland facilities and manages key communications with administrators to ensure effective operations. Ramieka also provides academic advising to current students and mentors GPEP alumni and former students reentering society. In addition to her role at GPEP, Ramieka serves on the board of Return Home Baltimore, an organization that helps individuals returning to Baltimore City and County post-release find valuable resources. She previously interned at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History (NMAH) in Washington, DC, where she developed a DEI-focused toolkit to build and improve employer relations with formerly incarcerated individuals. Recently nominated as a semifinalist for Baltimore’s Homecoming Hero award, her work highlights her dedication to educational equity, criminal justice reform, dismantling stigmas, and removing systemic barriers.
Patrick serves as the co-executive director of the Georgia Coalition for Higher Education in Prison. He spent 52 months incarcerated in Georgia prisons and leads with that lived experience by centering and uplifting the voices of the students he serves. In his work, Patrick builds and advances high-quality educational pathways to degree completion for incarcerated people throughout the state of Georgia and beyond. Through his work with the National Executive Council at Columbia University’s Center for Justice, he is widely known as a national thought leader on prison education programs and policy. Notably, Rodriguez was named to Georgia Trend Magazine’s 40 under 40, Best Self Magazine’s 40 under 40, the Obama Foundations Leaders USA program and most recently Jezebel Magazine’s 40 under 40. Patrick is recognized for his collaboration, innovation and foundation building to expand prison education programs throughout the nation. His ultimate goal is to inspire others impacted by the criminal legal system to know that they too can succeed in education and beyond.
During his 17 year incarceration, higher education served as an avenue to self empowerment that Shannon took to save himself from the hole he had dug for himself in society and the relationships he had damaged, in some cases irrevocably. Over the course of getting his bachelors degree in prison, Shannon became an activist and advocate, in various clever and daring ways at times, for increasing opportunities and access to education for those incarcerated. Since his release in 2020, Shannon is also the Founding Partner of a Multidimensional Justice Solutions firm called Paradigm Shyft, an Ed Trust Justice Policy fellow and Represent Justice alum, a consultant at Marquette University’s Higher Education in Prison program, a graduate of the Masters in Sustainable Peacebuilding program at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, and a first time father.
After two decades in prison, Abraham is a Clinical Technician in the Medical Intensive Care Unit at Yale New Haven Hospital’s Saint Raphael campus. An entrepreneur, he’s the visionary co-founder and CEO of Taino.Fianna, LLC and garment company Revolution Tees. Abraham is a member of the New England Commission on the Future of Higher Education in Prison, a Smart Justice Leader with the ACLU, and he serves on the advisory committee for BaseCamp, focusing on educator wellness/equity-centered trauma-informed care. He is a longtime policy advisor for the Second Chance Educational Alliance, and advises 4-CT, a guaranteed basic income non-profit. A writer, Abraham is a co-author of the forthcoming The Bloomsbury Handbook of Prison Education, has penned an essay for Harvard Law’s Inquest magazine and written a piece on COVID-19 in prison for Solitary Watch. A futurist, Abraham has lectured on prison policy and reform for Yale University, Quinnipiac University, and Southern New Hampshire University.
Allan is a program manager with the Vera Institute of Justice’s Unlocking Potential initiative, working to expand access to high-quality postsecondary programs in prisons. Allan helps lead the initiative’s technical assistance to colleges, corrections departments, and organizations offering postsecondary education and reentry programs to incarcerated people. In 2019 he co authored “Lessons from Second Chance Pell: A Toolkit for Helping Incarcerated Students Complete the FAFSA.” Allan also co-leads the initiative’s equity work, which is highlighted in a recent report called “Beyond Access: Advancing Racial Equity and Inclusion in Prison Education Programs.” He is also a founding member and current board chair of Nation Outside, a movement of formerly incarcerated people that inspires its members and the community to advocate for systems of support for currently and formerly incarcerated folks, their loved ones, and their communities.
I am thrilled at the chance to join the Rockwood Leadership Institute. I am eagerly anticipating the opportunity to connect with fellow participants, exchange ideas, and collectively enhance our skills and knowledge.
Congratulations to all! What an amazing and auspicious group in this inaugural cohort!
Congratulations to this fantastic group of individuals. It’s my HEP dream team!!!
What an amazing resourceful dedicated array of human beings making a difference!!! I celebrate your work ethic, purpose, determination, caring, inclusiveness, collaboration. I am so proud of my daughter , a gift to society. 🌠💕
Congratulations everyone. This is a powerful cohort in which I know you all will continue to be great leaders in the Higher education in prison programs.