Just Ideas has been encouraged and supported by many friends and colleagues. It was Geraldine Downey, Director of Columbia's Center for Justice, who first engaged Just Ideas Founder, Christia Mercer, to teach in prison and set in motion the development of Just Ideas as a program. Kathy Boudin and Cheryl Wilkins offered encouragement and advice. Eileen Gillooly in the Justice-in-Education Initiative has generously supported our efforts.
We owe special gratitude to Geoff Sayre-McCord, Executive Director, and Barry Lam, Associate Director, of the Marc Sanders Foundation for their moral and financial support. We take great inspiration from Jennifer Lackey and her wonderful Northwestern Prison Education Program.
Nivita Arora joined Just Ideas serendipitously in 2018, while at Columbia University's Undergraduate School of Engineering. Since then, she has continued to work with Just Ideas in various capacities, from interning to website building. Working with Just Ideas has realigned her life's focus to fighting America's incarceration system.
Dr. Kathy Boudin is Co-Founder and Director of the Center for Justice at Columbia University and a legendary activist involved in the consequences of mass incarceration, forming strategies to transform the current justice system, and the impact of higher education on incarcerated women.
Geraldine Downey is the Robert Johnston Niven Professor of Humane Letters in Psychology at Columbia University and the Director of the Center for Justice. Professor Downey has worked on and taught about issues related to incarceration since the 1970s, and has been an important contributor to the Just Ideas pedagogy.
Charles C. "Kip" Davis works as a Director of Insights for Ipsos NA, an international market research firm. He is also Chairman of Replications, Inc., an educational non-profit dedicated to providing an equitable education to underserved students and communities in New York City.
JACQUELINE (Jac) GARES is a New York-based filmmaker. She directed and produced FREE CeCe! with Laverne Cox. Her latest documentary OF MORTAL MEN (2020) follows formerly incarcerated RETHINKING JUSTICE students after their release and their pursuit of formal education. Gares has a BA in English Literature from Rutgers University and an MA in Media Studies from The New School. She has received support from Ford Foundation and Jerome Foundation as an Emerging Film/Video Artist.
Morgaine Gooding-Silverwood (Columbia College, 2015) is an activist, actor, and playwright who assisted Christia in the first course she ever taught in prison and helped her developed Just Ideas' approach. Mo continues to advise and inspire Just Ideas and helps train new teachers and interns.
Jennifer Lackey's Northwestern Prison Education Program has been an inspiration for the Just Ideas project. She is the Wayne and Elizabeth Jones Professor of Philosophy at Northwestern University. Her recent work focuses on false confessions, the criminal justice system, the duty to object, norms of credibility and the epistemic status of punishment.
Geoffrey Sayre-McCord is the Executive Director of the Marc Sanders Foundation and the Director of the philosophy, politics, and economics program at the University of North Carolina. His and the Marc Sanders Foundation support has been instrumental in sustaining Just Ideas programs in MDC.
Pastor Isaac Scott is Program Director for The Confined Arts, 2018 Change Agent Award recipient from the School of General Studies at Columbia University, and justice reform activist. Isaac's passion for criminal justice reform and the Just Ideas program runs deep as a result of being directly affected by the disenfranchising nature of the justice system. Isaac has been an important contributor to our Just Ideas' workshops and outreach.
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