Our Speakers
Prison Education:
Johana Bahamón, founder and executive president of the Internal Action Foundation (Fundación Acción Interna), Colombia
Edwin “Zakee” Hutchison, political and community activist, graduate of Mount Tamalpais College/Prison University Project
Rebecca Ginsburg, Associate Professor, Education Policy, Organization and Leadership and director of the Education Justice Project, a comprehensive college-in-prison program in the Chicago area
Zanele Vandala, Policy developer at the National Department of Correctional Services, South Africa
Advocacy for Incarcerated & Formerly Incarcerated Families:
Danica Bravo, coordinator of Stanislaus State’s Project Rebound, providing services and support to the formerly and currently incarcerated
Allison McKim, Associate Professor of Sociology, Bard College, author of Addicted to Rehab: Race, Gender, and Drugs in the Era of Mass Incarceration
Heather Erwin, Director of University of Iowa Liberal Arts Beyond Bars and Senior Advisor to Institute for Higher Education Policy
Justice for Asylum Seekers and Immigrants:
Anna Marie Smith, social worker, The Florence Project, providing free legal and social services to detained men, women, and children in Arizona
Robin Ragan, professor of Modern Languages (Spanish) at Knox College and translator for detained asylum seekers
Lizzeth Vazquez, social worker, Service Réfugiés at Centre d'Action Social Protestant, provides refugee families access to housing and rights
Solidarité des migrants wilson, provides food, information and human links to exiles on the avenue Wilson refugee camp in Saint-Denis
Coalition-Building & Community Organizing Around Violence & Poverty:
Yusef Shakur, community organizer, formerly at Michigan Roundtable for Diversity & Inclusion, works on rebuilding communities, gang violence and prisons.
Malik Washington, an editor at the San Francisco Bay View National Black Newspaper. Representative of the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee.
Shaily Gupta Barnes, policy director of the Kairos Center for Religion, Rights, and Social Justice and coordinator for the project Souls of Poor Folk: Auditing America for the Poor People's Campaign
Samuel Nunez, founder of Fathers & Families of San Joaquin, which provides support for support for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people, trauma recovery and victims of violent crime, youth and racial justice, and health advocacy
Johana Bahamón, founder and executive president of the Internal Action Foundation (Fundación Acción Interna), Colombia
Edwin “Zakee” Hutchison, political and community activist, graduate of Mount Tamalpais College/Prison University Project
Rebecca Ginsburg, Associate Professor, Education Policy, Organization and Leadership and director of the Education Justice Project, a comprehensive college-in-prison program in the Chicago area
Zanele Vandala, Policy developer at the National Department of Correctional Services, South Africa
Advocacy for Incarcerated & Formerly Incarcerated Families:
Danica Bravo, coordinator of Stanislaus State’s Project Rebound, providing services and support to the formerly and currently incarcerated
Allison McKim, Associate Professor of Sociology, Bard College, author of Addicted to Rehab: Race, Gender, and Drugs in the Era of Mass Incarceration
Heather Erwin, Director of University of Iowa Liberal Arts Beyond Bars and Senior Advisor to Institute for Higher Education Policy
Justice for Asylum Seekers and Immigrants:
Anna Marie Smith, social worker, The Florence Project, providing free legal and social services to detained men, women, and children in Arizona
Robin Ragan, professor of Modern Languages (Spanish) at Knox College and translator for detained asylum seekers
Lizzeth Vazquez, social worker, Service Réfugiés at Centre d'Action Social Protestant, provides refugee families access to housing and rights
Solidarité des migrants wilson, provides food, information and human links to exiles on the avenue Wilson refugee camp in Saint-Denis
Coalition-Building & Community Organizing Around Violence & Poverty:
Yusef Shakur, community organizer, formerly at Michigan Roundtable for Diversity & Inclusion, works on rebuilding communities, gang violence and prisons.
Malik Washington, an editor at the San Francisco Bay View National Black Newspaper. Representative of the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee.
Shaily Gupta Barnes, policy director of the Kairos Center for Religion, Rights, and Social Justice and coordinator for the project Souls of Poor Folk: Auditing America for the Poor People's Campaign
Samuel Nunez, founder of Fathers & Families of San Joaquin, which provides support for support for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people, trauma recovery and victims of violent crime, youth and racial justice, and health advocacy
Biographies
*Click on a speaker's name to be redirected to their website*
Johana Bahamón is a Colombian actress, businesswoman, founder and executive president of the Internal Action Foundation. Appointed by the Ministry of Justice and Law as a Goodwill Ambassador to promote the re-socialization and humanization of the prison system (2014). In 2000 she began her acting career. After participating in 15 productions and her last leading role in the TV Show “Three Miracles”, she retired from acting to dedicate and to work in prisons. In 2012 she created a theater group at the women’s penitentiary “El Buen Pastor” in Bogotá, where she began her involvement in prisons. To date, she has worked in 31 prisons in Colombia, benefiting more than 30,000 inmates.
Shailly Gupta Barnes works as the policy director of the Kairos Center for Religion, Rights, and Social Justice. She coordinated the project Souls of Poor Folk: Auditing America for the Poor Peoples’ Campaign as well as edited their Moral Budget. Shailly has a background in economics and law, having studied at the University of Chicago and Columbia University law school. Her writing has encompassed the intersection between poverty, incarceration, and race.
Danica Bravo is a Stockton native and the former Advisor in the Counseling Department at San Joaquin Delta College, where she assisted with the development of the Phoenix Project Program for formerly incarcerated students. Ms. Bravo has also developed the Project Rebound Program at Stanislaus State University in Turlock and Stockton. She is currently working towards a masters degree in Counseling. Ms. Bravo's passion for this line of work stems from her personal life experiences; at the age of 15 years old, both of her brothers were incarcerated. Her older brother served over 18 years and her younger brother served six years; she has made it her mission in life to help reduce recidivism in her community and provide those currently & formerly incarcerated with the necessary tools and resources to live successfully.
Heather Erwin is the Director of University of Iowa Liberal Arts Beyond Bars (LABB) and Senior Advisor to Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP). She is an education specialist and criminal justice reform advocate promoting access to higher education as a core element of success for people who are incarcerated. Heather worked previously as a Senior Program Associate at the Vera Institute for Justice, where she was part of the Sentencing and Corrections team to deliver technical assistance and training to colleges and universities participating in the U.S. Department's Second Chance Pell Experimental Sites Initiative. Heather is a graduate of the University of Iowa College of Law and Northcentral University.
Rebecca Ginsburg is a professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where she is the director of the Education Justice Project. This project can be described as a robust college-in-prison program. The programs are currently run in Champaign, Danville, and Chicago, Illinois. Ginsburg received her J.D. at University of Michigan Law School and her Ph.D. in architectural history at University of California at Berkeley.
Edwin “Zakee” Hutchison is a political and community activist. Under California's draconian Three Strikes Law, he was incarcerated for 21 years at San Quentin Prison for a nonviolent robbery and was released this year. He graduated from Mount Tamalpais College and Prison University Project.
Allison McKim is an Associate Professor at Bard College. She specializes in gender, punishment and social control, criminology, deviance, drug policy, the welfare state, and ethnographic research methods. Her new book, Addicted to Rehab: Race, Gender, and Drugs in the Era of Mass Incarceration (Rutgers University Press), is an ethnographic comparison of two drug treatment programs for women, one in the criminal justice system and one outside of the penal state in the health care system. In them she found very different ways of defining and treating addiction. Professor McKim's book reveals that addiction treatment reinforces the race, gender, and class politics of mass incarceration. Her work has also appeared in the journals Gender & Society and Signs.
Samuel A. Nunez founded Fathers & Families of San Joaquin 15 years ago as a catalyst for policy and systems change, reaching youth and families who are entangled in a complex web of systems that confine and hinder their human potential. After experiencing the trauma of community violence and incarceration, Sammy decided to reclaim his destiny and chose to promote peace, harmony and opportunity for all. Since then he has mentored and built power with thousands of young people and families from Stockton to Washington, DC working with inspiration, creativity, persistence and a deep commitment to healing and holistic wellbeing. Sammy has inspired national funders and cross-sector partners to lead with love and to invest in people as a primary tool for community transformation.”
Robin Ragan is a professor of Modern Languages (Spanish) at Knox College. Professor Ragan studied abroad in Barcelona her junior year of college. She later attended the University of Illinois-Urbana for her PhD in Hispanic Literatures. About five years ago, she earned her qualification as a Certified Medical Interpreter. At Knox College she teaches courses in digital
storytelling, translation and interpreting, spanish for healthcare, Spanish youth, and will teach a new course in legal translation and interpreting this Spring 2021. She has taken three groups to serve as interpreters at border detention centers where they were matched with pro bono attorneys and asylum seekers. She dedicates many hours each week to remote work on asylum cases, both as translator of supporting documents and interpreter. She was recently recognized by the American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Languages with the Global Engagement Initiative award.
Yusef “Bunchy” Shakur is a community activist from Detroit, working to improve conditions in the very neighborhood where he grew up for the next generation. Yusef’s initiative “Bringing the Neighbor Back to the Hood” hosts a yearly gathering with a backpack giveaway, a free clothing store, games, music, and food to bring the neighborhood together. His group is also renovating a house in the neighborhood to be a community center. Yusef also works as a program director at the Michigan Roundtable for Diversity and Inclusion, creating opportunities for the broader community to discuss topics of social justice. Through all of his work is the thread that greater access to basic resources and community relationships both help to keep people out of prisons.
Anna Marie Smith is the Managing Social Worker on the Children’s Program for the Florence Project. Anna Marie grew up watching social justice as her parents, an attorney and a social worker mirror traits that later would play an important role in Anna Marie’s career. She received her B.A. from Presbyterian College in South Carolina and continued her education, earning her Master of Social Work from the University of Georgia. Anna Marie’s compassion for social justice in the immigration system grew from her experience studying abroad, interning with WorkForce Investment Acts in School Youth Program and Casa de Amistad, a social services agency. As a social worker, she advocated for the children going through immigration proceedings, and has since created systems and structures for the children social service program to provide best practices for our clients.”
Lizzeth Vazquez is a social worker who works at Centre d'Action Social Protestant through the Service Réfugiés program. She works with refugee families housed in hotels all over Ile-de-France. In 2005, she graduated from the University of Southern California, with a Masters degree in Social Work. She has worked in England, the U.S., Mexico, and currently in France, addressing issues such as children with disabilities, child protection, mental health, human rights, homelessness, migration, asylum, and refugees. Fully trilingual, she enjoys traveling, learning and exchanging about professional practices and cultures, mindfulness, and compassion.
Ntombizanele Gloria Vandala is a policy developer at the National Department of Correctional Services in South Africa. Her research interest relates to correctional education, especially youth development projects and professional development programs in South Africa. She has written and published research articles and book chapters in the field of correctional education.
Malik Washington is a representative of the incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee, accomplished investigative journalist, and reporter for the San Francisco Bay View Newspaper, Malik takes to the pen to shed light on the the injustices devouring our correctional facilities. Sparing no name, he addresses governors, senators, and politicians alike for their failure to protect the rights of our citizens behind bars and ensure proper cooperation between the Bureau of Prisons and the CDC. This exposure is crucial in the onslaught of COVID-19 as prisons are at high risk of becoming hotspots. Addressing institutionalized racism, hate campaigns, and divide and rule tactics, Malik reminds us that, "we are not clueless" and, "the only lasting truth is change". In his words, "Dare to Struggle, Dare to Win, All Power to the People".
Solidarité Migrants Wilson was created 4 years ago in order to help a refugee camp in Saint Denis. Their main actions take place on the field. They help immigrants with their living conditions by providing shelter, resources such as food but also electronic devices… SMW is a collectivity that works 100% horizontally. There are no bosses and people come and go all the time. The participation of a new person is as valuable as the participation of a person that has been working for SMW for years. Currently a part of this collectivity, Silvana has been working with SMW for two years. She is very inspired by the SMW’s actions, as she is a foreigner living in France as well.
Shailly Gupta Barnes works as the policy director of the Kairos Center for Religion, Rights, and Social Justice. She coordinated the project Souls of Poor Folk: Auditing America for the Poor Peoples’ Campaign as well as edited their Moral Budget. Shailly has a background in economics and law, having studied at the University of Chicago and Columbia University law school. Her writing has encompassed the intersection between poverty, incarceration, and race.
Danica Bravo is a Stockton native and the former Advisor in the Counseling Department at San Joaquin Delta College, where she assisted with the development of the Phoenix Project Program for formerly incarcerated students. Ms. Bravo has also developed the Project Rebound Program at Stanislaus State University in Turlock and Stockton. She is currently working towards a masters degree in Counseling. Ms. Bravo's passion for this line of work stems from her personal life experiences; at the age of 15 years old, both of her brothers were incarcerated. Her older brother served over 18 years and her younger brother served six years; she has made it her mission in life to help reduce recidivism in her community and provide those currently & formerly incarcerated with the necessary tools and resources to live successfully.
Heather Erwin is the Director of University of Iowa Liberal Arts Beyond Bars (LABB) and Senior Advisor to Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP). She is an education specialist and criminal justice reform advocate promoting access to higher education as a core element of success for people who are incarcerated. Heather worked previously as a Senior Program Associate at the Vera Institute for Justice, where she was part of the Sentencing and Corrections team to deliver technical assistance and training to colleges and universities participating in the U.S. Department's Second Chance Pell Experimental Sites Initiative. Heather is a graduate of the University of Iowa College of Law and Northcentral University.
Rebecca Ginsburg is a professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where she is the director of the Education Justice Project. This project can be described as a robust college-in-prison program. The programs are currently run in Champaign, Danville, and Chicago, Illinois. Ginsburg received her J.D. at University of Michigan Law School and her Ph.D. in architectural history at University of California at Berkeley.
Edwin “Zakee” Hutchison is a political and community activist. Under California's draconian Three Strikes Law, he was incarcerated for 21 years at San Quentin Prison for a nonviolent robbery and was released this year. He graduated from Mount Tamalpais College and Prison University Project.
Allison McKim is an Associate Professor at Bard College. She specializes in gender, punishment and social control, criminology, deviance, drug policy, the welfare state, and ethnographic research methods. Her new book, Addicted to Rehab: Race, Gender, and Drugs in the Era of Mass Incarceration (Rutgers University Press), is an ethnographic comparison of two drug treatment programs for women, one in the criminal justice system and one outside of the penal state in the health care system. In them she found very different ways of defining and treating addiction. Professor McKim's book reveals that addiction treatment reinforces the race, gender, and class politics of mass incarceration. Her work has also appeared in the journals Gender & Society and Signs.
Samuel A. Nunez founded Fathers & Families of San Joaquin 15 years ago as a catalyst for policy and systems change, reaching youth and families who are entangled in a complex web of systems that confine and hinder their human potential. After experiencing the trauma of community violence and incarceration, Sammy decided to reclaim his destiny and chose to promote peace, harmony and opportunity for all. Since then he has mentored and built power with thousands of young people and families from Stockton to Washington, DC working with inspiration, creativity, persistence and a deep commitment to healing and holistic wellbeing. Sammy has inspired national funders and cross-sector partners to lead with love and to invest in people as a primary tool for community transformation.”
Robin Ragan is a professor of Modern Languages (Spanish) at Knox College. Professor Ragan studied abroad in Barcelona her junior year of college. She later attended the University of Illinois-Urbana for her PhD in Hispanic Literatures. About five years ago, she earned her qualification as a Certified Medical Interpreter. At Knox College she teaches courses in digital
storytelling, translation and interpreting, spanish for healthcare, Spanish youth, and will teach a new course in legal translation and interpreting this Spring 2021. She has taken three groups to serve as interpreters at border detention centers where they were matched with pro bono attorneys and asylum seekers. She dedicates many hours each week to remote work on asylum cases, both as translator of supporting documents and interpreter. She was recently recognized by the American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Languages with the Global Engagement Initiative award.
Yusef “Bunchy” Shakur is a community activist from Detroit, working to improve conditions in the very neighborhood where he grew up for the next generation. Yusef’s initiative “Bringing the Neighbor Back to the Hood” hosts a yearly gathering with a backpack giveaway, a free clothing store, games, music, and food to bring the neighborhood together. His group is also renovating a house in the neighborhood to be a community center. Yusef also works as a program director at the Michigan Roundtable for Diversity and Inclusion, creating opportunities for the broader community to discuss topics of social justice. Through all of his work is the thread that greater access to basic resources and community relationships both help to keep people out of prisons.
Anna Marie Smith is the Managing Social Worker on the Children’s Program for the Florence Project. Anna Marie grew up watching social justice as her parents, an attorney and a social worker mirror traits that later would play an important role in Anna Marie’s career. She received her B.A. from Presbyterian College in South Carolina and continued her education, earning her Master of Social Work from the University of Georgia. Anna Marie’s compassion for social justice in the immigration system grew from her experience studying abroad, interning with WorkForce Investment Acts in School Youth Program and Casa de Amistad, a social services agency. As a social worker, she advocated for the children going through immigration proceedings, and has since created systems and structures for the children social service program to provide best practices for our clients.”
Lizzeth Vazquez is a social worker who works at Centre d'Action Social Protestant through the Service Réfugiés program. She works with refugee families housed in hotels all over Ile-de-France. In 2005, she graduated from the University of Southern California, with a Masters degree in Social Work. She has worked in England, the U.S., Mexico, and currently in France, addressing issues such as children with disabilities, child protection, mental health, human rights, homelessness, migration, asylum, and refugees. Fully trilingual, she enjoys traveling, learning and exchanging about professional practices and cultures, mindfulness, and compassion.
Ntombizanele Gloria Vandala is a policy developer at the National Department of Correctional Services in South Africa. Her research interest relates to correctional education, especially youth development projects and professional development programs in South Africa. She has written and published research articles and book chapters in the field of correctional education.
Malik Washington is a representative of the incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee, accomplished investigative journalist, and reporter for the San Francisco Bay View Newspaper, Malik takes to the pen to shed light on the the injustices devouring our correctional facilities. Sparing no name, he addresses governors, senators, and politicians alike for their failure to protect the rights of our citizens behind bars and ensure proper cooperation between the Bureau of Prisons and the CDC. This exposure is crucial in the onslaught of COVID-19 as prisons are at high risk of becoming hotspots. Addressing institutionalized racism, hate campaigns, and divide and rule tactics, Malik reminds us that, "we are not clueless" and, "the only lasting truth is change". In his words, "Dare to Struggle, Dare to Win, All Power to the People".
Solidarité Migrants Wilson was created 4 years ago in order to help a refugee camp in Saint Denis. Their main actions take place on the field. They help immigrants with their living conditions by providing shelter, resources such as food but also electronic devices… SMW is a collectivity that works 100% horizontally. There are no bosses and people come and go all the time. The participation of a new person is as valuable as the participation of a person that has been working for SMW for years. Currently a part of this collectivity, Silvana has been working with SMW for two years. She is very inspired by the SMW’s actions, as she is a foreigner living in France as well.