Our first annual report is now available! Last year was a big year for us, and we’re grateful for all of our community members who helped make it a success. Check out what we accomplished in 2018 by clicking below.
Please note that the Prison University Project became Mount Tamalpais College in September 2020.
We are thrilled to welcome Sharyl McGrew as our new Grants Officer and Wendy Quezada as our new Executive Assistant.
Sharyl McGrew is excited to bring her extensive experience in nonprofit fundraising and higher education administration to the Prison University Project development team. Prior to joining the Prison University Project, she worked as a grant writing and project management consultant for a range of education and social service clients, raising over $40 million. She also worked for 7 years at the WASC Senior College and University Commission, overseeing several key accreditation processes and making policy recommendations related to innovation and change in higher education. From 2009-16, she taught English and Communications classes for the Prison University Project and also volunteered with San Quentin’s Alliance for Change. Sharyl earned a BA in English Literature from UC Santa Cruz and an MS in Community and Regional Development from UC Davis.
Prior to joining Prison University Project, Wendy Quezada worked in higher education and non-profits in the Bay Area. As the first in her family to obtain a college degree, she is passionate about access to quality education for all. In her spare time, she loves taking her two dogs on long hikes, and spending time with her husband and two young daughters. Wendy holds a B.A. in Anthropology and a Master’s Degree in Public Administration.
Please note that the Prison University Project became Mount Tamalpais College in September 2020.
Published in the April 2019 newsletter, which you can read in its entirety here.
In 2018, the Prison University Project welcomed six new members to the board of directors.
Theresa Roeder is Professor of Decision Sciences in the College of Business at San Francisco State University. There, she is actively involved in improving student access to education as well as the education itself. She earned her Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research at UC Berkeley, where she also occasionally teaches. Theresa is a current Prison University Project math tutor and has co-taught Introduction to Business and Communications. She previously served on the Board of Directors for and as webmaster of the Oakland Symphony Chorus.
Jeff Feinman is the West Coast Executive Director of Springboard Collaborative, a nonprofit that supports school districts to close the reading achievement gap through family engagement. Prior to leading Springboard, Jeff was the Vice President of the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Peninsula where he redesigned all college access programming. A Bay Area native and UC Berkeley and USF alum, Jeff also led Mission Graduates as its Executive Director from 2006-2012 and founded The DJ Project — an urban arts program that leverages hip-hop pedagogy and entrepreneurship to engage young adult populations. The program celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2019.
Patrice Berry is currently a FUSE Corps Executive Advisor in the Office of Mayor Libby Schaaf in Oakland, CA. Previously, she was the Director of College Track, East Palo Alto. Prior to College Track, Patrice served as director of the Student Success Center at the Netter Center for Community Partnerships and co-founded the Leaders of Change program. Patrice earned her B.A. in political science from Swarthmore College and holds an M.Ed. from the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education, where she was a Woodrow Wilson-Rockefeller Brothers Fund fellow. She currently is completing her Ph.D. at Temple University.
Haley Pollack is the Principal of College and Career Pathways at Five Keys Schools and Programs. She has been an educator for over ten years, working in a variety of capacities to help students meet their own educational goals and gain confidence in their own innate abilities. After receiving her Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, she taught History and Gender Studies to a wide range of students at San Francisco State University, Diablo Valley College, and Santa Clara University. As a volunteer with the Prison University Project, Haley taught a number of classes, including working in study hall as a writing tutor. As an advisor at College Track, she worked with low-income and first-generation college students, helping them to achieve their goals of a college degree.
Kathy Richards, J.D., retired from a solo law practice focused on family and dependency law. She has served as an instructor since 2014 for the Prison University Project and as coach for San Quentin’s Ethics Bowl team. Kathy is currently the Treasurer on the Board of Directors of the Sonoma Speakers Series. Previously, Kathy served as a Board member for the Lawyer Referral and Information Services under the auspices of the SF Bar Association and as a Board member and Secretary of the Willmar Family Grief & Healing Center. She has taught as an Adjunct Professor of Legal Writing and Research at Golden Gate University School of Law and Adjunct Professor of Family Law at SF State Paralegal Program.
Elana D. Leoni is the Founder of Leoni Consulting Group LLC, a boutique consultancy aimed at helping edtech organizations with their online marketing efforts, specifically focusing on social media, influencer, and content marketing, along with authentic community building. Prior to this, Elana spent eight years as the Director of Social Media Strategy & Marketing at Edutopia / The George Lucas Educational Foundation. Elana also spent five years within a marketing capacity at a SaaS corporate philanthropy startup, specializing in CSR and corporate volunteerism. Elana graduated Summa Cum Laude with a Bachelors in Business Administration from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo and recently graduated from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley with her M.B.A.
Please note that the Prison University Project became Mount Tamalpais College in September 2020.
2018 was our twenty-second year of offering the College Program at San Quentin. We’re excited to share the following data points from last year.
Over the course of 2018:
Please note that the Prison University Project became Mount Tamalpais College in September 2020.
We are thrilled to welcome Deirdre Judge as the new College Preparatory English Program Coordinator. Deirdre’s job duties will include: placement and management of English College Prep volunteers, student assessments, development of new student orientation and other student resources, and syllabus and curriculum development. The College Prep Program serves over 225 students annually, and on average, students spend two years in the program before advancing to the credit level courses.
Deirdre has dedicated their career to facilitation and curriculum design according to critical pedagogy. They believe in education as a strategy for freedom. Prior to coming to the Prison University Project, their experiences included teaching a feminist reading group in a women’s state prison, training educators, and tutoring high school and college writing. They hold an MA in Educational Studies from Tufts University. Deirdre loves speculative fiction and is almost always in the mood for homemade chocolate chip cookies.
Please note that the Prison University Project became Mount Tamalpais College in September 2020.
We are sad to announce the passing of Jane E. Kahn, a dear friend and supporter of the Prison University Project. Jane dedicated decades of her life to fiercely protecting the wellbeing and dignity of people incarcerated in California and beyond, and set an example for the world of a life filled with compassion, generosity, and meaning. We will miss her terribly and her spirit will be an integral part of our organization forever. An obituary written by Toby Rubin and published in The Jewish News of Northern California is included below:
The Bay Area Jewish community lost one of its brightest lights with the death of Jane Kahn on Dec. 26, 2018. She was 64. Jane was a model of tikkun olam in all aspects of her life, bringing her belief in the divine within all humans to her family life, her friendships, her work representing and advocating for the rights and dignity of incarcerated individuals, her volunteer leadership in Jewish and secular nonprofits and her philanthropy.
Jane was a fighter. She worked tirelessly on behalf of California’s prisoners, advocating for the civil rights of incarcerated persons with mental illness and other disabilities for decades. She believed that being incarcerated or without a home did not make a person less than human; she recognized the humanity of all around her. She fought against the indignity of homelessness with Religious Witness for Homeless and Hamilton House, against capital punishment with Death Penalty Focus, and for a brighter future for prisoners through Prison University Project.
Jane was also a lover. Her Jewish soul, bright smile, intelligence and tremendous compassion captured the hearts of people wherever she went. It was standing room only at Sinai Memorial Chapel in San Francisco on Dec. 28.
On her second day of college at Brandeis University, Jane met Michael Bien. From that day on, “Jane and Mike” or “Mike and Jane” seemed to be the only way to truly understand either of them. They both were raised in Jewish homes and raised their three sons, Ben, Max and Joey, in communities built through the JCCSF preschool, a family havurah, Brandeis Hillel Day School, Camp Tawonga, New Israel Fund, and Congregations Beth Sholom and Emanu-El. Jane was an active parent and volunteer at all institutions, including her leadership on the Camp Tawonga board.
Jane held Israel —its people and place — deep within her heart. Israel as a political entity became a painful challenge. In her remarks as co-recipient with Mike of the New Israel Fund Guardian of Democracy Award, Jane the lover and Jane the fighter came together. While others whispered to each other about the difficulty of talking about Israel with their young adult children, Jane shared the tensions within her own family. She believed that pushing out of our “tent” young adults who question and challenge the policies and practices of Israel regarding the Palestinian people is not the way to strengthen Israel or the Jewish people.
She always leapt to defend those she represented and those she loved.
Until the end, she took care of her enormous circle of loved ones. She faced her disease just as she embraced life. She showed us how to live each day as fully as possible, love fiercely, persevere whatever the obstacles. She dove into study, pursuing questions of living, dying, and the life of the soul. She wanted to be sure that not only she, but everyone she loved, would be ready for the moment that she’d be gone. She was remarkably brave and strong for over two years, right up until her last day. Jane prepared us for her death. Let us all be blessed by the lessons of her life.
Please note that the Prison University Project became Mount Tamalpais College in September 2020.
The Prison University Project is excited to partner with the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) in its efforts to address systemic issues around criminal justice reform in the United States. As the funding landscape shows increased interest in tackling mass incarceration, Aly Tamboura, former Prison University Project student, current board member, and Manager of Technology and Program Delivery at CZI, has served as an important liaison between funders, programs, and communities most impacted by the criminal justice system. Watch him, and others, discuss CZI’s important work below.
To learn more about CZI’s approach to philanthropy and system change, read David Plouffe’s piece on the Justice & Opportunity initiative.
Please note that the Prison University Project became Mount Tamalpais College in September 2020.
A few months ago we launched a search for a Learning Specialist to allow us to create and share best practices in trauma-informed instruction as well as methods for identifying and supporting students with learning disabilities.
Because such a high proportion of our incarcerated students are living with the long-term effects of trauma, student support services that incorporate trauma-informed practices are particularly critical for our work. Our goal is to understand the impact trauma has had on our students’ educational experiences, both in the way they view themselves as learners and their awareness of the resources available to them.
In a survey of incarcerated students enrolled in the College Program, nearly 90% were victims of violence or abuse while growing up, nearly 50% had experienced homelessness, and 36% had struggled with food insecurity. Of the surveyed students, 33% reported that they either had been diagnosed with a learning disability or suspected they had one. These experiences can cause long-term emotional and psychological barriers to learning. Currently our instructors are trained to identify students who are struggling and develop plans to help them finish course materials at their own pace. We created the Learning Specialist position as an extension of our work in an effort to train staff and faculty to maintain physically and emotionally safe learning environments in which student needs are met with a holistic, collaborative, and culturally competent approach. One that empowers and supports our students with learning disabilities and benefits our entire student body.
Allison Lopez brings years of experience to this role, previously serving as the College Preparatory English Program Coordinator. In this new position she will design, implement and manage expanded services for students with learning disabilities, psychological obstacles to learning, and challenges related to a history of trauma. Broadly, she will work to build organizational capacity to improve student support.
This new position is made possible by generous support from the Ascendium Education Group, and is tied to a larger initiative to share these new trauma-informed practices and approaches with practitioners of prison higher education around the country.
We are thrilled to announce that the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative will provide funding for the Prison University Project along with Ear Hustle, an award-winning podcast about life inside San Quentin.
You can read more about these partnerships in the San Quentin News — a publication that is produced, written, and published by people who are incarcerated in San Quentin.
The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) will provide grant funding to the Prison University Project (PUP) and Ear Hustle, an award-winning podcast. Both organizations are based at San Quentin State Prison.
PUP offers more than 350 inmates the opportunity to earn their Associate of Arts degree inside prison. Ear Hustle allows inmates to share their stories about what it’s like to live in prison on a daily basis.
“We are thrilled to support Ear Hustle’s efforts to connect with more listeners, and the Prison University Project’s plan to create new educational opportunities for people in San Quentin,” said Ana Zamora, criminal justice manager at CZI.
“These programs are breaking new ground by helping incarcerated people tell their own stories and make positive change in their own lives and in the world.”
In a statement, CZI said PUP “has been the site of a unique and unprecedented educational enterprise, providing excellent higher education to people at San Quentin,” and it acknowledged how the college program “supports increased access to higher education for incarcerated people across California.”
“The Prison University Project works to transform the U.S. criminal justice system by empowering incarcerated individuals to become leaders and change agents,” said Jody Lewen, executive director of PUP. The college program works “to break down harmful biases that dehumanize the image of incarcerated people in the public imagination.”
“The grant came in at an unbelievable time,” said Nigel Poor, co-host of Ear Hustle. “We didn’t have a big plan when we started. That’s only sustainable up to a point.”
Inmate and Ear Hustle co-host Earlonne Woods said the high-profile grant will show that their work is important. “Ear Hustle has to rely on grants,” he said. “I’m appreciative of CZI in assisting us in our struggles for funding.”
In October 2015, Dr. Priscilla Chan Zuckerberg and husband, Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, toured San Quentin to get a first-hand look at the programs inside the prison and to talk to inmates.
Aly Tamboura, who paroled from San Quentin in 2016, received his AA degree from PUP and learned computer coding in the Code.7370 program. He now works for CZI as its technology & program delivery manager and was instrumental in the grant funding going to PUP and Ear Hustle.
Poor, who is a tenured professor at California State University Sacramento, taught History of Photography at PUP in 2012 when she first met Tamboura, who was then an inmate-student. “He was a really good student,” she said. “He was really serious.”
After Tamboura paroled, he remained interested in the criminal justice system. While working for CZI, he proposed the idea of grant funding to organizations doing work to improve the criminal justice system.
Poor said she saw Tamboura at a Human Rights Watch conference, and then at a PUP brainstorming conference. Later, he escorted her into the CZI conference room in Palo Alto, California, to discuss a grant for Ear Hustle.
“It was wild,” Poor said. “It’s so uplifting that someone who was incarcerated is now responsible for funding Ear Hustle. If I hadn’t been teaching at PUP, I would’ve never made the connection.”
“A lot of people get out of prison and say what they’re going to do,” Woods said. He said Tamboura didn’t say he would do anything. “But he did. I’m just appreciative of a guy who looked back.”
“CZI’s generosity will allow us to grow in beautiful ways,” Woods said. “We usually hear about the great criminal justice reform work that groups like CZI do and only dream that this sequestered population could directly benefit … well, that dream has become a reality.”
Poor said she believes CZI wants to give voice to people who are voiceless. Through Ear Hustle, stories told by those living in prison are produced inside San Quentin and broadcast to the world with more than 12 million downloads.
In 2016, Ear Hustle won Radiotopia’s Podquest when it was chosen from more than 1,500 contestants from around the world, and it has been in the number one spot on Apple Podcasts.
The Prison University Project delivers the opportunity to the incarcerated to benefit from education in the liberal arts and to use their learning, talents and life experiences to make important academic and collective contributions. It provides training and mentorship to emerging educational programs that provide higher education in California and nationally.
In recognition of its impact and for providing education opportunities to the incarcerated, PUP was awarded the 2015 National Humanities Medal by President Obama.
At its 2018 graduation, Lewen said, “There are people out there that care about the things we care about.”
The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative is a philanthropic organization that is working to build a future for everyone. It uses traditional grant making, advocacy, storytelling, impact investing and engineering to help drive change at scale. Its criminal justice reform program focuses on power building in communities traditionally excluded from policy making and agenda-setting in criminal justice.
Please note that the Prison University Project became Mount Tamalpais College in September 2020.
This spring, the Prison University Project welcomed three new staff members:
Jeanie Kirk, Grants Officer
Before joining the Prison University Project, Jeanie was a Senior Grant Writer with Julep Consulting, where she managed foundation fundraising applications for The Data Center, Louisiana Bucket Brigade, Foundation for Louisiana, the Vera Institute of Justice’s New Orleans Office, and Common Edge Collaborative, in addition to supporting the fundraising capacity of the Mississippi River Delta Restoration Campaign, and GNO, Inc. Her consulting work in New Orleans began with a focus on coastal resilience and restoration funding campaigns, but through building stalwart relationships with intersectional organizations, her work expanded to include writing in support of justice reform, racial reconciliation, data literacy, and social justice. She began her career in philanthropy in San Francisco with The Nature Conservancy’s California Chapter, where she served for four years as the Program Manager for the chapter’s Corporate and Foundation Relations team, a $30 million/year fundraising unit. Jeanie has an MA from Columbia University focused on climate change and sustainable development, and a BA in International Studies from the University of Richmond. She has traveled extensively and lived in Europe, India, and Latin America and is based in Portland, Oregon.
Derrius Jones, On-Site Program Coordinator
Derrius is a recent graduate of The College of Wooster in Ohio with a major in Africana Studies and a minor in Sociology. While in undergrad, he served as a student representative during administrative meetings to discuss improving student experience and sat on the board of the Diversity, Equity, and Strategic planning committee. He devoted his research to developing effective reentry methods and improving development for low income urban communities.
Jared Rothenberg, Development and Communications Associate
Before joining the Prison University Project, Jared worked as an educator for The Mosaic Project in Oakland, CA. Prior to that, he taught at a bilingual public school in Madrid, Spain and founded a nonprofit focused on environmental justice education in Providence, RI. Committed to radically inclusive, student-centered learning, he brings a passion for teaching, program coordination, and nonprofit development to this role. Jared earned a BA in History and Environmental Studies from Brown University.
Please note that the Prison University Project became Mount Tamalpais College in September 2020.
