Table 4: Educating Changemakers and Community Leaders in Higher Education in Prison Programs

Thursday, January 22, 2026

8:00 AM - 9:15 AM East Coast USA Time

Location: Marquis Salon 5 - Level M2

Primary Presenter(s)

Ann Duncan

Executive Director, Goucher Prison Education Partnership
Goucher College, United States

Co-Presenter(s)

JD

Jareka Dellenbaugh-Dempsey

Program Coordinator
Wesleyan University Center for Prison Education
AG

Alexa Garza

Program Director
Texas Collective of Higher Education in Prison
EH

Emily Hainze

Associate Director, Bachelor of Liberal Arts Program, Prison and Justice Initiative
Georgetown University, United States
BW

Breea Willingham

Associate Professor
University of North Carolina Wilmington, United States

Prison education has long been part of the higher education landscape and has gained increased awareness since the reinstatement of Pell funding for incarcerated students. This roundtable discussion will feature directors from several such programs as well as advocates working to support incarcerated students and those reentering society and (via Zoom) currently enrolled students. Members of the Womxn’s Higher Education in Prison Consortium, these panelists will focus on women’s designated facilities in discussing how higher education provides these students with skills to think critically and opportunities to research and critique the systems in which they live. Panelists will discuss how students are demonstrating civic engagement in their communities through mentorship and activism and will discuss their drive to transform broken systems when they come home.