Tenaj Moody-Perry's intersecting identities as an Afro-Latina millennial raised in North Philadelphia, who survived domestic violence, poverty and having a parent who was incarcerated growing up, quickly taught her the power in owning her story and resilience. Meet Tenaj the Founder of a 2X award winning social enterprise called Light To Life, a program that provides gender-responsive programming for justice-impacted survivors of intimate-partner violence, and technical assistance to public and private sectors. Tenaj’s career is defined by a fierce, unwavering commitment to shift the narrative around education, mental health, and advocacy. Possessing over two decades of collective experience in prison education, early childhood education and victim advocacy work, she also works with a national nonprofit organization called From Prison Cells to PhD (P2P), serving as their Deputy Director of Research and Evaluation and Womxn's Empowerment Cohort Facilitator and as a Business Manager for a Virtual Reality Startup Company Called Ascendant VR. Tenaj has a Bachelors’ degree in Psychology and a Masters’ in Criminal Justice as well as holds the titles of: Licensed Behavior Specialist, 2X Best-Selling Author, Keynote Speaker, Advocate, Women's Health Research Practitioner.

Dr. Andrisse is an endocrinologist scientist at and faculty at Howard University College of Medicine and Georgetown Medical Center. He started From Prison Cells to PhD, a non-profit organization that currently works with 100 formerly incarcerated people each year. We provide resources, tools, support, mentoring and internships to help them to pursue their academic goals. We also continue to push academic institutions to ‘ban the box’. Our efforts helped to remove the criminal-history section from the Common Application, which is used by most US universities. In September, From Prisons to PhD was one of a five-member alliance — dubbed STEM Opportunities in Prison Settings (STEM-OPS) — to receive a 5-year, $5.2-million grant from the US National Science Foundation to develop accessible pathways for men and women into careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) who are, or were, incarcerated.

Avaion Barry is a Senior Psychology major, Afro-American Studies minor from Baltimore, studying at Howard University. She joined the research team as an intern through the P2P chapter at Howard University. She wanted to be involved in supporting and creating safe spaces for womxn, whose voices’ needed to be centered. She hopes to pursue a career in community psychology and provide mental health assistance to disadvantaged groups. Being involved in non-profit organizations similar to P2P has made her highly passionate about transformative justice and the rights of marginalized populations.

Talia Proshan is a Senior in high school at the Ethical Culture Fieldston School in New York City. She is passionate about supporting justice-impacted individuals, particularly through the use of technology. In addition to her work at on the They Are Survivors Too study, Talia has coded an app that highlights formerly incarcerated led businesses, and collected data on COVID cases among the incarcerated population.

Tran Dang is a third-year medical student at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, from Houston, TX and currently based in Baltimore, MD. She is on the Light to Life team as a research intern. She is passionate about women’s health and reproductive justice. She joined P2P and Light to Life on their research endeavors because they emphasize the importance of women’s health and need for gender-responsive programming, especially for those who have the least access to care. She hopes to continue to support and care for marginalized women throughout her career.

KeiAndra Harper is a graduate of East Tennessee State University and studied Psychology with minors in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Anthropology. She joined Light to Life’s team as the Community Outreach Intern through The Washington Center and is now working as the Partnership Manager. She is passionate about the work and research being done on her team and believes it is a great environment to grow in both personally and professionally. Prior to working for Light To Life, KeiAndra had a number of experiences that developed her passion for this work including working on Community Awareness projects based around human trafficking, researching healthy relationships for mHub Rwanda, and participating in student organizations for women and advocacy.