The people behind the project

The RJAD curriculum was designed, developed, and tested collaboratively with community and higher-educational partners and a dedicated, diverse team of Columbia University scholars. Some of these individuals include academics, artists, lawyers, advocates, abolitionists, formerly incarcerated people, and others committed to explore an end to mass incarceration in the United States and beyond
Staff
Headshot of Lisette B. Hughes.

Lisette B. Hughes

Curriculum Director of the Racial Justice and Abolition Democracy Project at the Columbia University Justice Lab Square One Project and the Columbia Law School Initiative for a Just Society

Bernard E. Harcourt

Initiative for a Just Society Executive Director and Isidor Seville Sulzbacher Professor of Law and Professor of Political Science at the Columbia Law School
Headshot of Bernard E. Harcourt.
Headshot of Bruce Western.

Bruce Western

Justice Lab Director and Bryce Professor of Sociology and Social Justice at the Columbia University

Katharine Huffman

Director at the Columbia University Justice Lab Square One Project
Headshot of Katharine Huffman.

Che Gossett

Racial Justice Postdoctoral Fellow at the Columbia Law School Initiative for a Just Society
Headshot of Che Gossett.
Headshot of Derecka Purnell.

Derecka Purnell

Scholar-in-Residence at the Columbia Law School Initiative for a Just Society

Kenyatta Emmanuel Hughes

Artist-in-Residence at the Columbia Law School Initiative for a Just Society
Headshot of Kenyatta Emmanuel Hughes
Headshot of Kiana Taghavi.

Kiana Taghavi

Program Director at the Columbia Law School Initiative for a Just Society

Marissa Gutierrez-Vicario

Artist-in-Residence at the Columbia Law School Initiative for a Just Society
Headshot of Marissa Gutierrez-Vicario.
Headshot of Omavi Shukur.

Omavi Shukur

Practitioner-in-Residence at the Columbia Law School Initiative for a Just Society

Shaina Evans

Program Coordinator at the Columbia University Justice Lab Square One Project
Headshot of Shaina Evans.
Headshot of Vivian D. Nixon.

Vivian D. Nixon

Writer-in-Residence at the Columbia University Justice Lab Square One Project

Fonda Shen

Program Director Emeriti at the Columbia Law School Initiative for a Just Society
Headshot of Fonda Shen.
Advisory Board
Headshot of Barbara L. Jones.
Barbara L. Jones
Community Dispute Resolution Specialist and Faculty Instructor at the Wayne State University  Center for Peace and Conflict Studies Program
Barbara, a dedicated Detroit native with over 17 years of experience in social justice and violence prevention, higher education, and the broader community, is currently serving as an educator at Wayne State University’s Office of Sexual Violence Prevention and Education.
Barbara’s multifaceted roles as a faculty instructor, restorative justice practitioner, and conflict manager reflect her commitment to racial justice with a focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Drawing from her previous role as the Community Dispute Resolution Specialist at the Center of Peace and Conflict Studies at Wayne State University, Barbara brings a wealth of experience in conflict transformation and restorative practices, particularly in addressing racial disparities. As a restorative justice practitioner and co-survivor of violent crime, Barbara advocates tirelessly for the empowerment of survivors and emphasizes the critical role of restorative approaches in reshaping the criminal justice system landscape.
Her academic journey includes a B.S. in Mass Communications from Rochester University, an M.A. in Dispute Resolution, and a graduate certificate in Peace and Security Studies from Wayne State University.
Headshot of Jason Seals.
Jason Seals
Department Chair of Ethnic Studies and Professor of African American Studies at Merritt College

Jason Seals is an African-centered educator, carrying the tradition of activist-intellectualism to address critical systemic issues and empower individuals for personal and social transformation. An Oakland native, Jason has over two decades of experience serving his community locally, nationally, and globally as an educator, thought leader, speaker, and change agent.

While completing his B.A. in Sociology at San Jose State University, Jason began his career in youth development serving in multiple roles across the nonprofit, mental health, and juvenile justice sectors. After obtaining his master’s in Africana Studies from the University of Albany, he leveraged his love for transformational educational practices and Africana studies in the classroom, teaching ethnic studies and manhood development courses at multiple high schools, colleges, and universities across the Bay Area.

Jason earned his M.Ed. in Counseling Psychology from the University of San Francisco. He currently serves as the Chair of Ethnic Studies and Professor of African American Studies at Merritt College in Oakland, California.

Headshot of Lorraine C. Taylor.
Lorraine C. Taylor
Executive Director of the Juvenile Justice Institute at North Carolina Central University

Dr. Lorraine C. Taylor is the Executive Director of the Juvenile Justice Institute, located in the Department of Criminal Justice at North Carolina Central University in Durham, North Carolina. In this role, Lorraine leads efforts to influence juvenile justice policy and practice by providing and supporting quality research, information, and technical assistance to youth system actors. Her work is guided by an “ecological systems” approach that evaluates how institutional, community and individual-level factors influence youth outcomes.

Lorraine has a B.S. from Howard University and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from the University of Virginia.
Headshot of Pastor Michael McBride.
Pastor Michael McBride
Executive Director at LIVE FREE USA

Rev. Michael McBride is the executive director for LIVE FREE USA a national organizing and social change network committed to ending the criminalization of people of color, reducing gun violence and transforming the policing and the criminal justice system. He was named by the Center for American Progress as a Top Clergy Leader in 2013 and served on President Obama’s Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships Council to address Poverty and Inequality in 2016.

He is one of the national leaders in the movement to implement public health gun violence prevention programs, recently featured as one of CNN’s Champions of Change. He is the co-founder of Black Church PAC and the Black Brown Peace Consortium. Pastor McBride serves as the Lead Pastor of The Way Church in Berkeley, CA. He has been a frequent contributor to the New York Times, the Washington Post, MSNBC, CNN, the Huffington Post and many other media outlets.
Headshot of Woods Ervin.
Woods Ervin
Director at Critical Resistance
Researcher at Interrupting Criminalization
Woods is a Black nonbinary trans person from the South who has been deeply immersed in movements for racial and gender justice for over a decade. Woods began organizing in 2006 in Chicago with the Broadway Youth Center, both as a case manager and to develop transformative justice practices for street-based trans youth. Woods has been a member of Critical Resistance since 2010, and from 2014 to 2018 was part of rebuilding Transgender, Gender-variant, Intersex Justice Project (TGIJP).
Through both organizations, Woods organized to stop the construction of a jail in San Francisco and developed policy recommendations for housing trans people in prisons, jails, and shelters, working with formerly incarcerated transgender people to develop a policy agenda based on their experiences.