AND WATER BRINGS TOMORROW

Susan Burton is a visionary, inspirational leader of the criminal justice reform movement, author of award-winning memoir, Becoming Ms. Burton, and founder of A New Way of Life Reentry Project (ANWOL). In 2018,  Ms. Burton launched the SAFE (Sisterhood Alliance for Freedom and Equality) Housing Network to replicate the effective and humane reentry model. It is through this work that she thrives, enjoying the progress of her foundations, all while knowing how many individual lives she has touched and changed throughout her own journey. https://anewwayoflife.org/

Roach Brown is the Executive Director of Your New Beginnings, Inc. and Host of “Inner Voices Coast-to-Coast.” Roach Brown and his wife, Mertine, broadcast live the first Tuesday of every month from the World Famous “Ben’s Chili Bowl” in Washington, DC. They bring pertinent subject matter to those currently incarcerated and the most vulnerable of all, returnees released after serving decades in prison. https://yournewbeginningsdc.org

Named a “New Civil Rights Leader” by Essence Magazine for her work to challenge mass incarceration, Nicole D. Porter manages The Sentencing Project’s state and local advocacy efforts on sentencing reform, voting rights, and confronting racial disparities in the criminal legal system. Porter’s areas of expertise include research and grassroots support around challenging racial disparities, felony disenfranchisement, in addition to prison closures and prison reuse. Her research has been cited in several major media outlets and on National Public Radio and MSNBC.

Amber-Rose Howard is a poet, public speaker and organizer from Pomona, California. Experiencing a felony conviction as a teenager propelled Amber-Rose into a lifetime commitment to organizing against the Prison Industrial Complex, building up the power of Black people and all others impacted by state violence. She is a graduate of the Women’s Foundation of California, Women’s Policy Institute Fellowship Program and a proud member of All of Us Or None. Amber-Rose currently directs Policy and Budget Advocacy as the Statewide Coordinator for Californians United for a Responsible Budget (CURB). https://jlusa.org/leader/amber-rose-howard/

Juliet Hooker is the Royce Family Professor of Teaching Excellence in Political Science at Brown University. She is the author of multiple award-winning books, including Race and the Politics of Solidarity (Oxford, 2009), Theorizing Race in the Americas: Douglass, Sarmiento, Du Bois, and Vasconcelos (Oxford, 2017), Black Grief/White Grievance: The Politics of Loss (Princeton, 2023), and editor of Black and Indigenous Resistance in the Americas: From Multiculturalism to Racist Backlash (Lexington Books, 2020). https://juliethooker.com/

KD Dixon is the Fair Chance Community Rights Organizer with Legal Aid At Work (LAAW). Since graduating from the Delancey Street Foundation in 2014, KD has been active in supporting communities throughout the Bay Area, including a Policy Fellowship with Legal Services for Prisoners with Children (LSPC). KD is a proud alumni of the Young Women’s Freedom Center, where young women are transformed into leaders; she continues to work closely with SF Adult Probation Department-Reentry Division, that focuses on job development and placement for people on probation.

Ipyani Lockert is the first-born child of Eddie and Sonia Lockert. Born and raised on the westside of San Bernardino, he is a product of the San Bernardino Unified School District, San Bernardino Valley College and Cal State University San Bernardino. He is the Inland Empire Faith Organizer for Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity. He encourages humanity through creative expressions and literature through his company Motivational Realizations. His latest literary work, “Losing Wait”, is a book about self-actualization and self-discovery. Im4HumanIntegrity.org | MotivationalRealizations.com

Courtney Hanson is a grassroots abolitionist organizer working to dismantle carceral systems across California. She is a co-founding member of Decarcerate Sacramento and the Communications Coordinator for California Coalition for Women Prisoners. She sits on the Coordinating Committee of Californians United for a Responsible Budget (CURB). Growing up with an aunt in prison who survived domestic violence and having a brief personal experience with arrest influenced Courtney’s commitment to building a better world rooted in ending gender-based oppression, including imprisonment.

Jordan Martinez-Mazurek is an autistic, agender, Latine grassroots organizer and abolitionist specializing in building teams and coalitions of ordinary people that win “unwinnable” campaigns. They regularly work with and consult groups across the U.S. and internationally on developing campaign and organizing strategies, political education, facilitation methods, organizational growth, and other tools to work toward collective liberation. 

Artie Ann Bates is a psychiatrist and writer in southeast Kentucky. She has worked for years in opposition to strip mining of the Appalachian Mountains. In addition to writing, her interests are gardening and wandering in the holler. She is a member of Concerned Letcher Countians.

Eddie is a proud son of Mexican immigrants. He is passionate about dismantling the capitalist institutions that perpetuate the marginalization of our most vulnerable communities. Eddie earned a Bachelor’s degree from University of California, Riverside majoring in International Affairs. He has years of experience working for several municipalities and the California State Assembly. https://ic4ij.org/staff/eddie-torres

Hilda Cruz, a mother, wife, grandmother, friend, and mentor, embodies the resilience of her Latino culture. As a woman of faith, she stands as a modern-day prophet, bravely denouncing oppression and envisioning the community. She has been a vocal opponent of the Adelanto immigrant detention facility since 2013, hosting prayer services and centering the voices of those impacted by detention have been instrumental in highlighting the need to shut down this facility. https://www.im4humanintegrity.org/our-staff/

Abhilasha Bhola is the auto supply chain campaign director with Public Citizen’s Climate Program. She advocates for top auto manufacturers to develop comprehensive policies and practices to produce fossil-free vehicles while accounting for the risks and harms generated by their supply chains. Prior to joining Public Citizen, Abhilasha worked on holding private equity firms accountable for their investments in fossil fuel infrastructure. She co-authored “Hidden Hazards: The Impact of Climate Change on Incarcerated Peoples” with the UCLA Luskin School of Public Policy: https://issuu.com/ebchr/docs/hidden_hazards_report?fr=sNjRjMDU1MTA4ODk

Maura O’Neill is a policy analyst and advocate with Better Neighbors Los Angeles. A graduate of UCLA's Luskin School of Public Affairs, she works to generate systems change, particularly in the areas of environmental justice, criminal injustice, labor, and housing. Trained in digital humanities, and telling the stories of data, her studies have included the “Hidden Hazards” report on the “Impact of Climate Change on Incarcerated People,” and a report mapping Youth Arrest Data in Los Angeles, she uses Critical data studies to uncover histories that have often been erased. https://mauraconeill.weebly.com

Originally from South Central Los Angeles, Megan Castillo is the ReImagine LA Coalition Coordinator and Manager of Policy & Advocacy for La Defensa. Megan is committed to upending state sanctioned violence, fighting for liberation and building a better quality of life for all BIPOC identifying peoples. Megan has earned both her Bachelors in Psychology and African-American studies and her Masters in Social Work, with an emphasis in Social Change and Innovation. https://ladefensa.org/

Olivia is an organizer from Long Beach, CA. She works in communications for CURB, both for outward facing media and to build relationships with inside advocates. During her time at Scripps College, Olivia got involved with prison abolition organizing through the 5C Prison Abolition Collective where she got the opportunity to learn more about what on-campus abolitionist organizing can look like and volunteer with CURB partners, Critical Resistance. Olivia also works locally in Long Beach with the group CAT-911. https://curbprisonspending.org/about-us

Katie Crooks currently is the Director of Museum and Visitor Experiences at Workhouse Arts Center, in Lorton, Virginia. Previously, Katie directed the Lucy Burns Museum and worked as a Librarian while also managing a handmade business specializing in custom pieces and sewn accessories. She has also served as a Visual Arts Specialist at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, and as the Senior Public Programs Coordinator at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

William Major is a photographer and community art practitioner from Northeast Tennessee. In his work, Major uses the documentary potentials of photography to tease out the forgotten, hidden, or otherwise obscured aspects of the Appalachian communities around him. William Major's art asserts that Appalachia is not a singular place in the maps and minds of the country, but a complex assemblage of people, cultures, histories, and material conditions that constantly shape one another. http://www.williammajorphotographs.com/

Mitch Whittaker is a resident of Letcher County in Kentucky, living on land held by his family for multiple generations. He works for the University of Kentucky’s County Extension Program in Whitesburg, Kentucky.

I have been a resident of Norristown for close to 40 years. I have been very involved in my community as a community activist. In the last year, I worked alongside a team of individuals to save the Airy Street Prison, which closed in the 1980s. The structure is a local landmark prominent in the town’s skyline designed by renowned architect, Napoleon LeBrun. The county had called for demolition, calling it a monument to oppression.

Diana Block works with the Bay Area Cuba Saving Lives Committee. She is a founding and active member of the California Coalition for Women Prisoners , an abolitionist organization that celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2020. She is the author of a memoir, Arm the Spirit – A Woman’s Journey Underground and Back (AKPress 2009), and a novel, Clandestine Occupations – An Imaginary History (PM Press 2015). She writes for various online journals. 

Romarilyn Ralston is the Senior Director of the Justice Education Center at the Claremont Colleges. After serving 23 years in prison, I earned a bachelor’s degree in Gender & Feminist Studies from Pitzer College and a master’s degree in liberal arts from Washington University in St. Louis. I have also completed several fellowships, and I have received numerous social justice awards and recognitions. Access to higher education has fueled my commitment to helping others discover the transformative power of post-secondary education and community accountability. I am currently in my first-year of a PhD program in Executive Management at the Claremont Graduate University’s Drucker School of Business.

California Coalition for Women Prisoners

Brian Kaneda is a Black queer feminist organizer and a founding member of the California Coalition for Women Prisoners (CCWP) Los Angeles chapter. He has spent the last decade advocating for Care First economies, the rights of incarcerated individuals, and the closure of prisons and jails in California. Brian came to CURB in 2019 with over 20 years of experience in business and media. In 2021, Brian became the Year 1 Community Co-chair of LA County's Measure J subcommittee on Mental Health, Behavioral Health & Diversion, and assumed the role of Deputy Director at CURB. He serves on the Executive Teams of JusticeLA and Budget 2 Save Lives as well as the Coording Committee for Reimagine LA County.

https://curbprisonspending.org/about-us

Tannah Oppliger is an organizer from Dallas, Texas and the Policy Assistant for Californians for a Responsible Budget. She helps coordinate the #CloseCAPrison campaign and informs CURB's legislative and outreach strategies for decarceration in California. In high school, Tannah became involved in community organizing and political education around economic, racial, and gender justice--all of which led her to discover a passion for abolition and community-based care.

Esmeralda Santos was born in Los Angeles and grew up in Montclair, CA. Being a child of Mexican immigrants and a long-time resident of the Inland Empire, Esmeralda has felt the calling of being an advocate for the Inland Empire and the marginalized communities in it. Esmeralda will be graduating from the University of California, Riverside in June of 2022 with two Bachelors in Education and Ethnic Studies. She had prior experience working for the Riverside Office of Education,  local Congress Members, doing research on human rights in Brazil, and teaching English in Thailand.

https://ic4ij.org/staff/esmeralda-santos

Isabella “Isa” Borgeson is a queer, multiracial Filipina American artist, international spoken word poet, writer, and educator from Oakland, California who views her poetry as an artistic extension of her activism and community organizing. Isa was named a finalist for Best New Poets 2018, after being nominated for her poem “relearning Ocean.” She has received fellowships from Voices of Our Nation Art Foundation (2015, 2017) and the Poetry Incubator through Poetry Foundation and Crescendo Literary (2016). As AIR Serenbe’s 2019 Spoken Word Artist with a commitment to Community and Collaboration (SWACC!) Fellow, she recently participated in a month-long writing residency in Serenbe, Georgia. 

http://isaborgeson.com/bio

Mohamed Shehk is the national campaigns director of Critical Resistance (CR), a national grassroots organization rooted in Oakland, CA working to abolish the prison industrial complex. He has supported CR's campaigns and projects to shrink and end policing programs, such as ending Urban Shield, fight against new prison and jail construction projects, including stopping new jails in San Francisco and Los Angeles, and close down existing cages, most recently in shutting down three state prisons in California and working to end ICE detention in New Jersey and New York. He has also been engaged in amplifying international solidarity with people's struggles outside of the U.S., and supporting the Palestinian movement for liberation.

Jose is a Los Angeles native with Maya Lenca roots in El Salvador. He recieved his BA in Sociology from Oregon State University and Master's in Social Work from the University of Southern California. He has dedicated his life to uplifting the voices of youth. He became a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in 2020 and has worked for several well-established mental health agencies such as Pacific Clinics, Wellnest (formerly Los Angeles Child Guidance Clinic), and is currently a Clinical Supervisor at MLK Hospital, providing support for students of color to pursue social work licensing. Given his indigenous ancestry, he uses that knowledge and tradition in his role as a restorative justice facilitator.

Growing up in a family and community of immigrants, Jehan is deeply committed to defending the human rights of all people. Jehan joined the ILRC in June 2022.  Prior to joining the ILRC, Jehan represented detained and non-detained immigrants in removal proceedings at Pangea Legal Services and as an Immigration Legal Fellow with Community Legal Services in East Palo Alto. Jehan also fought for policies to disentangle local law enforcement from immigration enforcement, as a Ford Fellow with Advancing Justice – Asian Law Caucus’s Criminal Justice Reform program. Jehan received her J.D. from New York University Law School. During law school, Jehan was a student advocate for two years in the Immigrant Rights Clinic. In the clinic, she represented asylum seekers in immigration court and co-authored amicus briefs before the Eight Circuit and Board of Immigration Appeals.