Jaki Shelton Green, ninth Poet Laureate of North Carolina is the first African American and third woman to be appointed as the North Carolina Poet Laureate. She is a 2019 Academy of American Poet Laureate Fellow, 2014 NC Literary Hall of Fame Inductee, 2009 NC Piedmont Laureate appointment, 2003 recipient of the North Carolina Award for Literature. Jaki Shelton Green teaches Documentary Poetry at Duke University Center for Documentary Studies and has been named the 2021 Frank B. Hanes Writer in Residence at UNC Chapel Hill. Her publications include: Dead on Arrival, Masks, Dead on Arrival and New Poems, Conjure Blues, singing a tree into dance, breath of the song, Feeding the Light, i want to undie you. On Juneteenth 2020, she released her first LP, poetry album, The River Speaks of Thirst, produced by Soul City Sounds and Clearly Records. Jaki Shelton Green is the owner of SistaWRITE providing writing retreats for women writers in Sedona Arizona, Martha’s Vineyard, Ocracoke North Carolina, Northern Morocco, and Tullamore Ireland.

Chris Canfield volunteered in a prison for more than a dozen years, taking people who were incarcerated out on passes and leading yoga and meditation classes. Chris worked most of his career as an environmental nonprofit executive, and lives with his wife in North Carolina. In HKF’s books, he found kindred and guiding spirits. He is the author of a fantastic PDF guidebook for Volunteering in Prisons found here and Nine Paths to Forgiveness, an exploration of how our personality differences affect our spiritual paths.

André Smith is a teacher, facilitator and wisdom seeker. Since 2006, he has taught Buddhism and Anger Management to residents of Nash Correctional Institution in Nashville, NC. He brings the wisdom of difficult life experiences–past drug addiction, homelessness and the murder of his 17-year-old son–into his powerful teaching practice and advocacy. In addition to being on our board, he also advocates for an end to the death penalty through his work as a board member of North Carolina Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (NCCADP).

Craig Waleed, EdD, works with Disability Rights North Carolina. He is the Project Manager for Unlock the Box (UTB), End SolitaryNC Campaign Against Solitary Confinement. In addition, he is an educator, counselor, certified Restorative Practices group facilitator, author, and motivational speaker, dedicated to excellence in teaching, scholarship, and disrupting the community-to-prison pipeline. Craig’s career has also included a post-doctoral fellowship at UNC-Chapel Hill in the School of Social Medicine, as a substance abuse counselor, developing and managing reentry initiatives for post-incarcerated citizens, and teaching mental health counseling and communication courses at The College at Brockport State University of New York and Monroe Community College in Rochester, NY., and eight years of lived experience as an incarcerated person in New York State’s prison system. In 2018, Craig earned a doctorate in Executive Leadership. In addition, his autobiography, Prison to Promise: A Chronicle of Healing and Transformation, was published in August 2020.

Peter Kuhns, Psy.D. is the Director of Clinical Services and Programs with the North Carolina Division of Juvenile Justice. He has spent the past 20 years working as a psychologist with both adjudicated juveniles and incarcerated adults. He began his career in 2003 working as a substance use therapist at C.A. Dillon Youth Development and then remained at this facility for the next 7 years serving as both a staff and senior psychologist. In 2010 he transferred to the adult corrections system when he took the position as psychological program manager for the inpatient mental health unit at Central Prison located in Raleigh, NC. In late 2012 he transferred to the position of psychological program manager for the outpatient program at Central Prison where he both oversaw the clinical operations of the prison and provided direct therapy services to the general population, restrictive housing, and death row units. In 2017 he returned to Juvenile Justice where he served as the clinical director for Lenoir Youth Development and then accepted his current position in early 2020. Dr. Kuhns is a licensed psychologist and received his doctorate from Forest Institute located in Springfield, MO. He lives in Durham with his wife and their two children.