Meet Our Experts
NBWJI’s experts include community organizers, lawyers, mental health providers, policy analysts, public health professionals, and criminologists.
Sydney McKinney, PhD, MPH, MA
Executive Director
Dr. McKinney is deeply committed to advancing rigorous research, policy, and technical assistance that lifts up the voices of system-impacted Black women, girls and gender-nonconforming people. Under her leadership, NBWJI’s research and advocacy will demonstrate the importance of centering the experiences of Black women, girls, and gender nonconforming people in efforts to end mass incarceration and how critical it is that our society advance new models of justice that are rooted in honoring the dignity of all people and promote individual and collective healing. Dr. McKinney has over 15 years of experience in the areas of child welfare and justice reform, leading and implementing research and evaluation in applied settings. She holds a Ph.D. in sociology and an M.A. in law and society from New York University, as well as an M.P.H from Columbia University.
Abbi Leman
Senior Director of Communications
Abbi Leman is an editor, writer, and communications strategist. She has been working in the nonprofit and higher education fields for nearly 20 years, providing communications expertise across a range of areas for mission-driven organizations. She has led communications strategies at the CUNY Institute for State and Local Governance and the CUNY School of Law, a public interest law school. She began her career at the Vera Institute of Justice. Abbi holds an M.A. in applied linguistics from Columbia University and a B.A. in English and history from Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois.
Khaila Mickens
Research Associate
Khaila Mickens is a former educator with a lifelong commitment to using learning and storytelling to advance social justice. Joining the team as a research associate, she is particularly passionate about uplifting the voices and experiences of Black girls, women, and nonbinary femmes, who are often silenced while bearing the heaviest burdens in their families, workplaces, and broader society. She holds a B.S. in social analysis and research from Brown University and has experience employing quantitative and qualitative methods to evaluate education policy and investigate research questions around race, gender, and sexuality.
Tenaj Moody
Director of Capacity Building & Learning
Tenaj Moody embodies an unyielding commitment to fostering resilience, healing, and empowerment among justice-impacted survivors. Her upbringing in North Philadelphia as an Afro-Latina millennial marked by triumph over domestic violence, poverty, and parental incarceration ignited a deep understanding of the transformative strength within her own story. As the director of capacity building and learning, she leads initiatives to enhance services and programs, ensuring reentry pathways of healing and justice for women, girls and non-binary people. Tenaj brings over 12 years of experience across research and evaluation initiatives for higher education within correctional facilities and gender-specific programming for justice-impacted women and survivors of gender-based violence. She is the founder of Light To Life and a two-time best-selling author. She holds a master’s degree in criminal justice and is a licensed behavior specialist.
Kera Riddick
Digital Communications
Kera Riddick is a seasoned social media strategist and content creator with over a decade of experience in digital marketing, specializing in content strategy, brand growth, and audience engagement. She has a proven track record of elevating brands through innovative storytelling and data-driven marketing campaigns, most notably growing a social media platform from 4K to 40K followers in just six months.
Kera studied Communications at Buffalo State College and has further honed her expertise with additional coursework in Social Psychology. Her passion for empowering marginalized communities through digital platforms is at the heart of her work, where she merges creativity with strategic insight to drive social impact.
Trúc Towns
Executive Assistant
Trúc Towns is passionate about business operations and applying those systems to aid in the healing and growth of underserved communities. Trúc is currently the executive assistant at National Black Women’s Justice Institute, where she brings a wealth of expertise from her 10 years of experience in administration and business operations. Trúc is dedicated to aiding the team in driving evidence-based solutions and fostering positive change in the lives of healing Black women, girls and nonbinary people. Her passion for working with underserved communities is reflected in her work in the domestic violence field and free health care clinics/research in her home state. She is a first generation college graduate with a bachelor's degree in health administration from the University of Utah and has experiences in developing high quality administrative systems across a wide array of professional settings.
Board of Directors
Monique Couvson, EdD
(formerly Monique W. Morris)
Board Chair
Monique Couvson, Ed.D., is an Executive Producer and co-writer of the 2019 documentary film, PUSHOUT: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools, based upon two of her books, Sing A Rhythm, Dance A Blues: Education for the Liberation of Black and Brown Girls (The New Press, 2019) and Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools (The New Press, 2016). Dr. Couvson is also the Founder of the National Black Women’s Justice Institute (NBWJI), an organization that works to interrupt school-to-confinement pathways for girls, reduce the barriers to employment for formerly incarcerated women, and increase the capacity of organizations working to reduce sexual assault and domestic violence in African American communities. Dr. Couvson’s work has been profiled by MSNBC, CSPAN2, the Washington Post, The New York Times, NPR, and PBS, among other national and local print, radio, and television media. Her research intersects race, gender, education and justice to explore the ways in which Black communities, and other communities of color, are uniquely affected by social policies.
Ayana Curry, Esq.
Board Member & Secretary
Ayana Curry has practiced law for over 20 years. She is a founder and partner at Burris, Nisenbaum, Curry & Lacy, LLP which specializes in Civil Rights Litigation, particularly police misconduct and discrimination. Curry heads the Appellate Practice, Law & Motion Practice, as well as training young attorneys and law clerks. In 2015, Curry appeared before the U.S. Supreme Court for oral arguments in Sheehan v. City of San Francisco. She has also successfully argued many cases in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals championing the cause of underserved communities that have been victimized by law enforcement. Her previous work experience includes California Office of the Attorney General, Department of Justice, Criminal Division, Appeals, Writs & Trials, Deputy Attorney General; Fulton County District Attorney’s Office, Appellate Division, and Chief Senior Assistant District Attorney. Curry is a mother and she holds a Black Belt in Wun Hop Kuen Do Karate.
Robert Rooks
Board Member
Robert Rooks is one of the nation’s premier criminal justice reformers with more than two decades of experience as a grassroots organizer, strategist, and movement leader. He is an expert in building and scaling social justice organizations and has been instrumental in winning groundbreaking criminal justice reforms across the country. Robert’s work is rooted in his experience growing up in Dallas, Texas, and seeing his community decimated by the crack cocaine epidemic. Devastated by the pervasive violence and incarceration, distraught by the absence of support, and driven by the desire to give her children greater opportunity and access to education, sports and services, Robert’s mother moved him and his siblings to a suburban community. This gave Robert a unique lens into two worlds. Motivated to heal these wounds and create change for the next generation, Robert dedicated his life to advocating for and changing policies on behalf of crime survivors, people in the justice system, and formerly incarcerated people.
Isis Sapp-Grant, LMSW
Board Member & Treasurer
Isis Sapp-Grant is a nationally recognized expert on youth gang violence, gender-responsive programming, youth development and delinquency. Isis’s transformation from gang leader to community leader, led her founding of the Youth Empowerment Mission (YEM) in 1998, where she served as the Executive Director until 2010. During that time Isis also created the Blossom Program for Girls, a community-based gender responsive alternative program to address the very unique needs of girls and young women in crisis. Blossom became the first program in NYC to provide a safe community alternative that centered Black girls and other girls of color. who would otherwise be incarcerated, expelled from school or petitioned for PINS. Isis has been featured across mainstream media appearing on numerous radio and television programs, including: BET, Good Day New York Street Soldiers, Whoopi’s Morning Show, NPR, WBLI, Oxygen Television for Women, and TV One, to name a few. Her story has been shared by Essence, Ebony, Cosmo Girl, Redbook, Philanthropy News, Daily News, The Daily Challenge and Our Time Press. She also has received distinguished recognition, including the Robin Hood Heroes Award, National Council on Crime and Delinquency Program Excellence Award, the Public Advocates Leadership Award, Redbook’s Hero Award, The Brooklyn District Attorney Award for Community Leadership and more.
Nicole York
Board Member
Nicole York is the Pulitzer Center's director of human resources. She is an HR professional with over 20 years of progressive experience in human resources management solutions for both profit and nonprofit organizations across a variety of industries. Her professional experiences include executive level management, strategic program management, training/employee development, organizational development, and employee relations in organizations from 25 to 35,000 employees. During York's human resources career, she has been responsible for managing the full cycle of human resources. In addition, she has served on numerous project steering committees, and held the roles of project lead and functional consultant. She is also an adjunct professor at Prince George's Community College, where she teaches in the Hospitality Management Department. York holds certifications as a Professional Human Resources (PHR) since 2006, SHRM-SCP designation (2015).