Marci Marie Simmons

ReentryAccess to EducationRestorative JusticeLong SentencingFamilies and IncarcerationHealth Justice and DisabilityMental Health and HealingSecond Look SentencingVoting Rights RestorationWomen and Incarceration

Jun 10

Written By Bryan Simmons

About Marci

Marci Marie Simmons is a justice reform advocate, educator, and storyteller who centers the experiences of incarcerated women and gender-expansive people. Through her work, she raises awareness about gender-specific challenges in the criminal legal system while fostering healing, empowerment, and community support for those impacted by incarceration.

Marci is a member of the 2025 Represent Justice Ambassador cohort. Through the program, she developed Whispers Beyond Bars, a film that details the reality of life in prison for pregnant women, exposing the lack of compassionate care for mothers who are incarcerated.

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Other Speakers

JJ’88

California
JJ’88 is a singer, rapper, and songwriter raised in North Long Beach, and shaped by the streets, the church, and 18 years of incarceration he began as a child. His passion for music ignited in prison, where freestyle sessions became a lifeline.

Thaisan Nguon

California
Thaisan and his family are survivors of the Cambodian genocide (1975-79) that saw over 3 million lives lost. He grew up in Long Beach, CA and is the second oldest of 10 siblings. He was serving Life Without the Possibility of Parole (LWOP) until his sentence was commuted in December 2018 and subsequently found suitable for parole in 2021.

Page Dukes

Georgia
Page Dukes is a core organizer with liberatory memory and writing projects Mourning Our Losses and Georgia Freedom Letters, and Communications Associate at the Southern Center for Human Rights, where she raises awareness about the effects of incarceration and the need for agency and accuracy in conversations about people in prison.

Kent Mendoza

California
Kent Mendoza was born in Mexico and came to the US at six years old. He grew up in Los Angeles where at an early age he was exposed to gangs, drugs, and violence. He joined a gang at 14 and was incarcerated at 15 and served time in a probation camp.

NaJei “Jei Jei” Webster

Illinois
NaJei Webster is an advocate and mentor committed to supporting incarcerated women and youth. Through volunteerism, mentorship, and public education, she promotes self-advocacy, legislative awareness, and successful reentry for justice-impacted individuals.

Nicole "Coco" Davis

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.

Dena Dickerson

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.

Autumn Mason

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.

Angelique Todd

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.

Marci Marie Simmons

Texas
Marci Marie Simmons is a justice reform advocate, educator, and storyteller who centers the experiences of incarcerated women and gender-expansive people. Through her work, she raises awareness about gender-specific challenges in the criminal legal system while fostering healing, empowerment, and community support for those impacted by incarceration.

Emmanuel “Noble” Williams

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.

John Medina Jr.

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.

Kemba Smith Pradia

Virginia
Kemba Smith Pradia, once sentenced to 24.5 years in prison for drug-related offenses, became a prominent advocate for criminal justice reform after receiving clemency from President Clinton, and now works as a public speaker, author, and consultant while continuing her activism through various organizations and her own foundation.

Michelle West

California
During more than 30 years of incarceration, Michelle West never stopped organizing for her freedom with the #FREEMICHELLEWEST campaign. In January 2025, President Biden commuted Michelle's sentence, citing her overwhelming support from the civil rights community, women’s rights advocates and lawmakers. In the short time since her release, Michelle has been honored by the Black Music Action Coalition, advocated for federal prison reform on Capitol Hill, was a guest speaker at Kim Kardashian’s graduation, and served as a keynote speaker at JustUs Ideas Week.

Michael Saavedra

California
Michael Saavedra is a legal advocate, solitary confinement survivor, and hunger striker.

Dolores Canales

California
Dolores Canales is an activist, organizer, and the Director of Community Outreach for The Bail Project.

Jack Morris

California
Jack Morris is the program director at St. John's Community Health in Los Angeles, here he works with justice-impacted communities and those exiting incarceration by providing re-entry services based on the social determinants of health.

Donna Hylton

New York
Donna Hylton is an activist and author who advocates for women and girls affected by intersectional trauma, focusing on issues such as domestic violence, police brutality, and incarceration, while also contributing to significant legislation like the Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act and leading her own nonprofit, A Little Piece of Light, to empower survivors and promote healing through education and community support.

Jessie Mabrey

Georgia
Jessie D. Mabrey is Certified Peer Specialist and dedicated advocate for justice-impacted people and children with incarcerated parents, leveraging over 15 years of experience to connect people in reentry to resources, support, and programming. She is driven by her belief that "where you’ve been is not who you are."

Xavier McElrath-Bey

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."

Waleisah Wilson

Georgia
Waleisah Wilson is a passionate criminal justice reform activist and organizer who founded NewLife Second Chance Outreach, Inc. after her release from prison in 2011 to provide essential employment and entrepreneurship services and workshops for individuals with criminal convictions, while advocating for disability justice, voting rights, bail reform, faith community inclusion, an end to solitary confinement, fines & fees, mass incarceration and prison labor in Georgia, and the removal of barriers to reentry.

Vivian Anderson

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.

Tyra Patterson

Ohio
Tyra Patterson, an artist and activist serving as the Community Outreach Strategist at the Ohio Justice & Policy Center, utilizes her lived experience to educate legal professionals, advocate for policy reform—such as the ban on life sentences without parole for children in Ohio—and integrate art into the narrative of justice-impacted individuals.

Tabatha Trammell

Georgia
Tabatha is a full spectrum birth doula, prison doula, and abortion doula that helps incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women and girls through her program, Dorcas Doula Initiative. Through her other venture, Woman With a Plan, Tabatha provides mentorship and support services while sharing her own journey of mental illness, drug addiction, incarceration, and motherhood.

Shannon Ross

Wisconsin
Shannon Ross, the Executive Director of The Community, founded the organization while serving a 17-year prison sentence to address the criminal legal system's impact through greater information sharing, self-empowerment, and narrative change. Since his release in 2020, he has expanded his advocacy as a graduate student, podcast host, and entrepreneur focused on supporting system-impacted individuals.

Paine the Poet

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.

Norris Henderson

Louisiana
Norris Henderson, Founder and Executive Director of VOTE and Voters Organized to Educate, leverages his 27 years of wrongful incarceration to advocate for public policy reform in areas like police accountability and public defense, while actively working to uplift communities of color across Louisiana through various leadership roles and community outreach.

Nelson Morris

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.

Michelle Cirocco

Arizona
Michelle Cirocco, Chief Social Responsibility Officer for Televerde and Executive Director of the Televerde Foundation, has been recognized as one of the World-Changing Women in Conscious Business and is committed to using her leadership to advocate for second chances while actively volunteering in her community.

Malika Kidd

Ohio
Malika Kidd is a Project Manager at the Council of State Governments Justice Center, where she leads initiatives to support economic mobility for people with criminal records, drawing on her personal experience and expertise in workforce development, education, and reentry services.

Bryan Simmons

Marci Marie Simmons

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About Marci

#RepresentJustice