We are in a state of mass incarceration in the United States, the country with the highest incarceration rate in the world. Roughly 70 million Americans — almost one-third of the working population — have a criminal record. Around 25% of formerly incarcerated people do not have a high-school diploma or equivalent graduation certificate. Knowing how transformational education can be, Dr. Andrisse started From Prison Cells to PhD, a non-profit organization that currently works with 100 formerly incarcerated people each year. The organization provide resources, tools, support, mentoring and internships to help them to pursue their academic goals. It also continues to push academic institutions to ‘ban the box’. The efforts helped to remove the criminal-history section from the Common Application, which is used by most US universities. In September 2019, From Prisons to PhD was one of a five-member alliance — dubbed STEM Opportunities in Prison Settings (STEM-OPS) — to receive a 5-year, $5.2-million grant from the US National Science Foundation to develop accessible pathways for men and women into careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) who are, or were, incarcerated.

This is the first of a three part webinar speakers series called "Centering the Voices of Formerly and Currently Incarcerated People and Leaders in the Movement.

Keynote Speaker

Dr. Stanley Andrisse, Assistant Professor, Howard University College of Medicine; Executive Director, From Prison Cells to PhD

Panelist

Donte Small, IT Director, From Prison Cells to PhD

Majid Mohammad, Ambassador, From Prison Cells to PhD

Moderator

Joyell Arscott, Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Epidemiology

For more information or question, please email: jjun7@jh.edu