Illinois
Nicole Davis is a social entrepreneur and community leader dedicated to empowering marginalized communities. As CEO of the Talk2Me Foundation and founder of The Sisters of Support House, she provides critical resources and advocacy for justice-impacted individuals and their families, using her lived experience to drive meaningful change.

Alabama
Dena Dickerson is a justice reform advocate and community leader based in Alabama. As Chief Operating Officer of the Offender Alumni Association and founder of initiatives like “Heroes in the Hood,” she develops programs that support community rebuilding and empower individuals impacted by systemic inequities.

Minnesota
Autumn Mason is a Certified Doula and Peer Support Professional who advocates for families impacted by incarceration. Grounded in her own healing journey, she works at the intersection of reproductive justice, reentry, and policy change—educating and empowering communities while advancing systemic reform.

Alabama
Angelique Todd is an award-winning filmmaker, survivor leader, and visionary social impact entrepreneur committed to transforming systems through storytelling, advocacy, and economic empowerment. She is the Founder and Executive Director of WE WIN Organization Inc. and CEO of Next Level Business Services & Solutions, where she leads initiatives that equip underserved communities—particularly justice-impacted women—with the tools to achieve sustainable economic mobility.

Massachusetts
Emmanuel “Noble” Williams is a restorative justice leader, educator, father, and activist with over a decade of experience advancing healing-centered practices. Through his work with the Transformational Prison Project and academic institutions, Noble fosters authenticity, vulnerability, and community-driven approaches to justice reform.

California
John Medina Jr. is a program manager and criminal justice reform advocate who transformed his life through education after a childhood shaped by adversity, bullying, and incarceration. Now holding a Master’s Degree in Social Work, he supports formerly homeless adults navigating complex behavioral health challenges, including co-occurring disorders, through systems navigation, practical, community-based support, and person-centered approaches that empower individuals to take action, build belief in their ability to transform, and move forward with purpose. His work is grounded in a vision of communities where people live with dignity and autonomy, have access to the resources they need, and are not defined by systems, diagnoses, or past experiences.

Illinois
Xavier McElrath-Bey, Executive Director of the Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth and Co-Founder of the Incarcerated Children's Advocacy Network, champions the human rights of incarcerated children by advocating for the abolition of life without parole and other extreme sentences for youth. Drawing from his own experience of being charged as an adult for murder at 13 and serving 13 years in prison before becoming a dedicated advocate for at-risk youth, Xavier boldly professes to the world that "no child is born bad."

South Carolina
Vivian is an advocate, healer, and the Founder & Executive Director of EveryBlackGirl, Inc., a grassroots, community-based advocacy and service organization focused on prevention, intervention and creation for a world where every Black girl thrives.

Washington D.C.
Paine The Poet, a spoken word artist and activist, uses his poetry and personal experience as a formerly incarcerated individual to advocate for the disenfranchised, disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline through high school poetry courses, and prepare incarcerated youth for reintegration into society.

Illinois
Nelson Morris, a Project Associate at Restore Justice, dedicates his efforts to community outreach and fundraising while mentoring youth and teaching advocacy courses, all after spending 29 years in prison for a crime committed at 17, from which he was granted a new sentence following the Supreme Court’s Miller decision.

Louisiana
Kerry Myers is the Deputy Director of the Louisiana Parole Project and an award-winning journalist dedicated to aiding individuals who were sentenced to life as children and others with extreme sentences. He spent 27 years fighting for his own exoneration after being wrongfully convicted of murder. He now advocates for justice reform through his writing and public speaking.

Pennsylvania
After serving 31 years of a life sentence given at age 17, John was resentenced and paroled, and since his release, he has dedicated himself to supporting other former juvenile lifers in their reentry journeys and young people who find themselves involved in the criminal justice system, earning recognition for his advocacy work and serving as Senior Reentry Coordinator at the Youth Sentencing & Reentry Project in Philadelphia.

Florida
Herman, the 135th person exonerated from death row in the U.S. and the 23rd from Florida, views his wrongful conviction as a lesson that fuels his advocacy for criminal justice reform, trauma awareness, and the abolition of the death penalty, as he now works with at-risk youth and speaks internationally on these crucial issues.

Washington D.C.
Artist Halim A. Flowers turned his experience sentenced to life at the age of 16 into 11 published works through his company SATO Communications. He was released in 2019 and has since earned prestigious fellowships and representation for his visual art.

South Carolina
Niya Kenny is a social justice advocate and education reformer who uses her experience to fight the school-to-prison pipeline and challenge laws that disproportionately impact Black students.

Washington D.C.
Eddie B. Ellis Jr., a reentry advocate and consultant, founded One by 1, Inc. and leverages his experience as a formerly incarcerated person to build safer communities through training, mentorship, and support for reintegration, while also serving as the Co-Director of Outreach & Member Services at the Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth.

Louisiana
Andrew, once labeled a “juvenile lifer,” transformed his life after becoming the first in Louisiana to be paroled under new rulings, and now leads the Louisiana Parole Project to help others with extreme sentences reintegrate and thrive.