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Juan Carlos Meza
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Juan Carlos Meza is a co-founder & curriculum developer of ALIGHT’s gender/LGBTQ focused prison program; he was also the lead facilitator of that program while he was incarcerated and continues to train others in the curriculum today.
Carlos earned his parole in 2020, his first appearance before the Board of Parole, which was a hard-fought battle indeed. Preparing for an appearance before the Board is difficult enough without being on lockdown in an ancient facility during a global pandemic. But the bright light that Carlos has brought the world could not be ignored, so he rejoined his family and loved ones in the free world, for the first time since he was a teenager, in August 2020.
To the surprise of absolutely no one, Carlos immediately continued making his mark in the art of healing. Among other incredible accomplishments, he was one of the few awarded the prestigious Individual Artist Fellowship from the California Arts Council in 2021. He continues acting, directing, and scriptwriting through arts programs with a focus on healing and personal growth. The work closest to his heart is that of the ALIGHT collective, where Carlos develops/facilitates transformative curriculums and also creates spaces of proximity for different communities to come together to build empathy and heal harms.
Carlos earned his parole in 2020, his first appearance before the Board of Parole, which was a hard-fought battle indeed. Preparing for an appearance before the Board is difficult enough without being on lockdown in an ancient facility during a global pandemic. But the bright light that Carlos has brought the world could not be ignored, so he rejoined his family and loved ones in the free world, for the first time since he was a teenager, in August 2020.
To the surprise of absolutely no one, Carlos immediately continued making his mark in the art of healing. Among other incredible accomplishments, he was one of the few awarded the prestigious Individual Artist Fellowship from the California Arts Council in 2021. He continues acting, directing, and scriptwriting through arts programs with a focus on healing and personal growth. The work closest to his heart is that of the ALIGHT collective, where Carlos develops/facilitates transformative curriculums and also creates spaces of proximity for different communities to come together to build empathy and heal harms.
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Senoj "Egypt" Jones
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Senoj Egypt is a groundbreaking transgender Creole artist, organizer, and scholar. Professionally she has specialized in upscaling small community-based and grassroots social justice organizations, with a specific focus on advancing access to justice for transgender girls and women of color, both behind and beyond the prison bars.
Senoj’s lived experiences and her intersections of systems-impact guide everything we do at ALIGHT. Shortly after aging out of the foster care system, she was entered into the legal system and then the prison system. As a young woman of color being housed in a men’s prison, she discovered the ACT program and brought her big, beautiful, courageous voice to our group at San Quentin – and none of us were ever the same. We continue to learn from the joyful way that Senoj stands up to the structural and institutional forces that block equity access to every part of her identity and from the deeply loving way she shows up and fights for the most systems-impacted and underserved communities.
Since earning her freedom from prison and parole, Senoj has not stopped reaching back. She's served as the director of a foster youth program, which provides direct services to youth, from ages 10-18, through counseling, career planning, social development, creative workshops, health awareness, and advocacy. She has supported adults living at the intersections of the greatest oppression – including TGI (Trans, Gender Nonconforming, and Intersex) people, incarcerated people, and people of color – both through direct services and community organizing.
As a service provider and program practitioner, she has created safe spaces and platforms to elevate and empower the voices & narratives of Trans People of Color; Provided outreach and case management to previously incarcerated adults, both trans & cisgender; Coordinated and facilitated peer groups and one-on-one counseling; taught employment preparation and professional development courses; and Senoj has been an invaluable developer in ALIGHT’s curriculum development. Senoj has also served as a Vicarious Survivor in the program ALIGHT developed for state court. Senoj shines as a community advocate and organizer, lighting up all of her efforts with her artistry. She has written for and emceed numerous events, from small fundraisers to mega-conferences of more than 1200 attendees.
Senoj’s lived experiences and her intersections of systems-impact guide everything we do at ALIGHT. Shortly after aging out of the foster care system, she was entered into the legal system and then the prison system. As a young woman of color being housed in a men’s prison, she discovered the ACT program and brought her big, beautiful, courageous voice to our group at San Quentin – and none of us were ever the same. We continue to learn from the joyful way that Senoj stands up to the structural and institutional forces that block equity access to every part of her identity and from the deeply loving way she shows up and fights for the most systems-impacted and underserved communities.
Since earning her freedom from prison and parole, Senoj has not stopped reaching back. She's served as the director of a foster youth program, which provides direct services to youth, from ages 10-18, through counseling, career planning, social development, creative workshops, health awareness, and advocacy. She has supported adults living at the intersections of the greatest oppression – including TGI (Trans, Gender Nonconforming, and Intersex) people, incarcerated people, and people of color – both through direct services and community organizing.
As a service provider and program practitioner, she has created safe spaces and platforms to elevate and empower the voices & narratives of Trans People of Color; Provided outreach and case management to previously incarcerated adults, both trans & cisgender; Coordinated and facilitated peer groups and one-on-one counseling; taught employment preparation and professional development courses; and Senoj has been an invaluable developer in ALIGHT’s curriculum development. Senoj has also served as a Vicarious Survivor in the program ALIGHT developed for state court. Senoj shines as a community advocate and organizer, lighting up all of her efforts with her artistry. She has written for and emceed numerous events, from small fundraisers to mega-conferences of more than 1200 attendees.
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Elliott Hosman
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Elliot Hosman, J.D., is a legal expert, community organizer, and artist deeply committed to honoring lived experiences and creating spaces for healing. Elliot brings a wealth of creative and technical skills to ACT as we step into a chapter of organizational growth to broaden and deepen the impact of the urgent work of healing for our LGBTQ2S+ and ally family members inside. Elliot has led and supported efforts that provide critical support to transgender and gender-nonconforming people navigating CDCR prisons. Additionally, they have given systems impacted people urgent and personalized support on resentencing, clemency, and reentry, expanded opportunities to participate in art therapy, and created new publishing opportunities in partnership with incarcerated people and their communities on the outside and in the nonprofit sector. Elliot’s recent initiatives include Care Not Cages: A People’s Guide to Healing, as well as organizing attorneys, community advocates, incarcerated people, and other stakeholders in navigating Penal Code section 1172.1 Resentencing, including drafting two editions of a comprehensive Back to Court Resentencing Guide. Elliot also brings to ALIGHT Justice their extensive experience in coalition building, multimedia publishing, event planning, editing educational and research materials, resource management, nonprofit administration, and communications campaigns.
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Freddy Gutierrez
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Freddy is the Assistant Dean and Director of the Center for Social Justice & Civic Engagement at Holy Names University. He is also the founder and previous facilitator of the Artistic Ensemble of San Quentin (AESQ), which has performed several works at San Quentin that have drawn the praise of administrators, incarcerated people, and guests from the public, including two Best Actor/Actress Academy Award winners. Freddy is an innovative instructor with experience in facilitating project-based, equity-driven programs and he has taught broadly in California high schools, colleges, and prisons. He is a prolific creator and a published award-winning poet and performer whose works explore the everyday trauma of patriarchy and the intersections of the systemic forces of poverty, violence, power, incarceration, immigrant & indigenous trauma, gender oppression, and the criminalization of youth of color – as well as love, fatherhood, and resiliency. Freddy has performed at cultural centers and universities throughout the nation. Working with criminology professors, Freddy has also developed a multi-part Social Justice Informational Series. And he if the very proud papi of two.
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Billie Mizell
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Billie is the previous Executive Director and the current Chair Emeritus of Insight Prison Project.
She is also a co-founder of Transformative Prison Work (TPW), a collective that convened more than 40 organizations serving incarcerated people in order to grow services in carceral settings while raising awareness among the public and with legislators.
Billie has worked on numerous death penalty cases, she's the former Board Chair of Death Penalty Focus, and founder of the Coalition to End California Executions (CECE), which was established to provide the California governor with the information and inspiration to cease executions of the more than 730 people on California's Death Row. This effort was realized with Governor Newsom’s recent order to halt executions and dismantle the death chamber at San Quentin. Billie has also investigated, researched, and written extensively about criminal justice/prison reform, Restorative/Transformational Justice, racial, gender & LGBTQIA equity, and coalition building.
She is also a co-founder of Transformative Prison Work (TPW), a collective that convened more than 40 organizations serving incarcerated people in order to grow services in carceral settings while raising awareness among the public and with legislators.
Billie has worked on numerous death penalty cases, she's the former Board Chair of Death Penalty Focus, and founder of the Coalition to End California Executions (CECE), which was established to provide the California governor with the information and inspiration to cease executions of the more than 730 people on California's Death Row. This effort was realized with Governor Newsom’s recent order to halt executions and dismantle the death chamber at San Quentin. Billie has also investigated, researched, and written extensively about criminal justice/prison reform, Restorative/Transformational Justice, racial, gender & LGBTQIA equity, and coalition building.
More bios coming soon...
