htl cohort 2 bios
Michael Lozano
Michael Lozano is a formerly incarcerated individual who has graduated with an Associates of Arts Degree from Madison College, following a Bachelors of Arts in Business Administration with a minor in Spanish, and lastly, a Masters of Business Administration with an Emphasis in Finance both from University of Wisconsin- Whitewater. Michael’s journey has been marked by impactful roles in academic program management all the way to student recruitment. Currently, he serves as a Student Life Coordinator for Milwaukee Area Technical College in Milwaukee, WI, where he creates events to engage both students and community. In his spare time, he works part-time as a coach coordinator for Formerly Incarcerated College Graduates Network (FICGN), where they provide reentry services to those returning to society from Prison. Previously, he served as a Correctional Education Coordinator for Second Chance Pell Program at the same institution, where he spearheaded the implementation of educational programs for students who are incarcerated including The Welding Fundamentals Degree Program and both Associate of Arts and Science Degree Programs. Lastly, he’s also held a Bilingual (Spanish) Recruitment Specialist position at the same institution, engaging with diverse communities to promote educational opportunities.
Tiffany Brown
Tiffany Brown is the Founder and Executive Director of Developing Despite Distance (3D), a Detroit-based
501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to supporting children with incarcerated parents. A Licensed Professional Counselor with over a decade of experience working with youth and nonprofits, Tiffany’s inspiration for 3D is deeply personal - having experienced her own mother’s incarceration as a teenager in Detroit, she is committed to empowering youth and helping them build resilience, strength, and a sense of hope for a brighter future, despite the challenges they face.
In 2016, through President Barack Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper (MBK) Initiative, Tiffany partnered with the Skillman Foundation to launch 3D, an innovative program that began by helping young men in Detroit maintain connections with their incarcerated parents. As one of six awardees of the MBK Detroit Innovation Challenge, 3D received $60,000 to launch. Under Tiffany’s leadership, the organization has supported nearly 200 youth, achieving an impressive 99% graduation rate. Her passion for breaking the silence around mass incarceration and its impact on families has made 3D a recognized safe space for Detroit’s youth. Tiffany’s proudest moments come from witnessing 3D’s youth graduate from high school and successfully transition to college, a skilled trade program, the workforce, or the military - milestones that affirm the power of love, support, resilience, and access to opportunities.
Toni Tulloch
Toni Tulloch is the International Organizer for the International Network of Formerly Incarcerated Women (INFIW), a global network of formerly incarcerated women across more than 30 countries. In this role, she works alongside women with lived experience to strengthen leadership, build connections across countries and regions, and ensure that formerly incarcerated women have a meaningful voice in the policies and movements that affect their lives.
Toni's commitment to this work is deeply personal. She spent more than 16 years incarcerated in the U.S. federal prison system and was deported to Jamaica following her release. Her experience of incarceration, separation, reentry, and rebuilding her life continues to shape how she approaches leadership and her belief in the power of people with lived experience to lead change.
She is also a member of Penal Reform International's Global Group of Experts by Experience and has contributed to international consultations, convenings, and policy discussions on prison reform, reintegration, and the rights of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women.
Toni is also an author who has published two novels. Writing became part of how she rebuilt and expressed herself after incarceration, and remains an important part of who she is beyond her organizing work.
Dawn Harrington
Dawn Harrington is the Executive Director of Free Hearts, a statewide organization led by formerly incarcerated women, that organizes people impacted by incarceration across Tennessee and also holds the operations of the International Network of Formerly Incarcerated Women. She is also the Special Projects Manager for the National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls. During her incarceration, Ms. Harrington was disturbed by the impact of incarceration on families, especially women and children, and she was inspired to make a difference upon her release. Dawn Harrington does local, state, national and international abolitionist work led by women and girls.
Leah Faria
Leah Faria (She/Her) is a fierce advocate, compassionate leader, and devoted mother, daughter, and sister who has dedicated over twenty years to uplifting communities disproportionately harmed by the criminal legal system. A resilient survivor of both domestic and state violence, Leah transforms her lived experience into a powerful force for education, community empowerment, and grassroots organizing within Black and Brown communities. Her unwavering commitment brings not only practical support but also a profound sense of hope and solidarity to those navigating the devastating impacts of incarceration. With every step, Leah embodies the spirit of resistance, healing, and transformative justice.
Douglas Matthews
Douglas Matthews is the Finance and Budget Manager for the State University of New York’s Office of Higher Education in Prison (OHEP), where he oversees a multimillion-dollar portfolio supporting SUNY’s statewide efforts to expand access to high-quality higher education for currently and formerly incarcerated students. In this role, Douglas provides financial leadership, budget strategy, fiscal oversight, and operational support for initiatives designed to strengthen and sustain higher education in prison across New York State. Douglas brings an uncommon combination of professional expertise and lived experience to this work. His journey has included serving as a correctional officer and correctional division union president, experiencing incarceration himself, and later returning to the field as an advocate, administrator, and leader committed to transforming the systems he has experienced from multiple perspectives. This breadth of experience gives him a distinctive understanding of both the challenges within correctional systems and the transformative potential of education, opportunity, and meaningful reentry support.
Desiree Riley
Desiree “Dezi Speaks” Riley is a mother, creator, and community builder from Philadelphia who believes in the power of transformation through story, purpose, and connection. She is the founder of The MasterMind Cooperative, a growing network dedicated to healing, empowerment, and opportunity for people impacted by trauma and incarceration. Through her leadership, the organization bridges personal growth with community development, creating pathways for individuals to rebuild confidence, skills, and stability while nurturing collective care and resilience.
Dezi is the author of Felony to Freedom: Journey to Liberating an Institutionalized Mind, a deeply personal account that traces her evolution from confinement to freedom of mind and spirit. Her writing continues to open doors of understanding for others walking their own path of transformation. She is also a contributing author in Breaking Chains, Building Futures: Pathways to Redemption, Education, and Excellence, published by Wiley, which highlights voices shaping the national conversation on reentry, education, and justice reform. Her contribution brings lived experience into dialogue with innovation and compassion, amplifying the humanity behind system change.
William Freeman
William “Husayn” Freeman is the Manager of Higher Education Justice Initiatives at The Education Trust, where he leads the Justice Fellows Policy Program and advances policy efforts at the intersection of higher education and the criminal legal system. A formerly incarcerated leader, William brings both lived experience and policy expertise to his work, with a focus on expanding opportunity for justice-impacted students and communities. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Sociology and Anthropology from Goucher College and is currently pursuing a Master of Public Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Epidemiology with a focus in Violence.
Dr. Ayana Thomas
Dr. Ayana Thomas is the Founder and Executive Director of The G.R.I.E.F. Initiative™, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization advancing a whole-person behavioral health care model that integrates grief support, clinical care, public health, community healing, and resource navigation. She is also the Founder of Ayana Thomas Initiative LLC, an author, grief practitioner, program developer, speaker, and advocate whose work challenges traditional understandings of grief. Through her pioneering framework of Grief Forensics™, Dr. Thomas examines the grief beneath behavior, trauma, loss, disruption, and major life transitions—particularly within communities that have historically been underserved and overlooked.
Her work has led to the development of programs serving courts, correctional and reentry settings, domestic violence survivors, women, families, and community-based organizations. Through The G.R.I.E.F. Initiative™, she is building an integrated model where individuals can receive grief-centered support alongside behavioral health, clinical, public health, wellness, and reintegration services. Dr. Thomas is the creator of the AYANA’s Grief Method™ — Acknowledge, Yielding, Articulation, Navigation, and Access—and the author of Grieving Back to Life. Her approach is grounded in the belief that grief extends far beyond death and can include the loss of identity, relationships, safety, freedom, family connection, housing, community, opportunity, and the life a person once imagined.
Makeda Davis
Makeda N. Davis is a technologist, entrepreneur, published author, songwriter, and justice-impacted leader whose work spans technology, reentry, advocacy, legal support, and the arts. After returning home from nearly a decade of incarceration, she entered the technology field through Justice Through Code at Columbia University and, with support from Next Chapter, attended Galvanize’s Hack Reactor software engineering bootcamp. She later served as a Site Reliability Engineer at Checkr. Makeda is the founder of Prose It Ain’t So, a legal support company, and the creator of HOME RUN, a platform that helps people returning from incarceration navigate how the world may have changed while they were away. She serves on the Board of Directors of Hour Children, teaches digital literacy through Emergent Works, and is a member of the Formerly Incarcerated College Graduates Network (FICGN). Makeda also co-wrote and appeared in FICGN’s Person-First Pledge PSA, advocating for dignity and person-first language when speaking about justice-impacted individuals. Through technology, education, advocacy, and storytelling, she transforms lived experience into access, healing, and possibility.
Dawn Oliver-Ramsey
Dawn Oliver-Ramsey (she/her/Duchess) is a queer matriarch and homegrown cultural organizer from Kansas City, MO; her work is rooted in Black queer feminism, unapologetically focuses on abolishing institutions of harm and centers the leadership of those closer to the problem and solution. Dawn’s work is built on the foundations of embodied+cultural organizing and Ancestral and Indigenous practices to co-create personal and collective transformation. Among other things, Dawn is a seasoned legal professional, avid gardener and authentic Aries; her favorite color is green.
Dawn is the co-founder of Operation Liberation, a Black queer led abolitionist organizing, mutual aid and legal defense hub seeking to end violence and mass incarceration in KC and beyond, and also serves as its Executive Leader. Dawn is honored to serve on the board of the Missouri Justice Coalition and grateful for numerous opportunities to organize and train with various social justice formations rooted in abolitionist values across these lands. Leaning on a wealth of lived and professional experience, Dawn hopes to help build a world where cages aren’t actively being built for her grandchildren.