2026 Racial Justice Conference Speakers

Alan Dettlaff, a professor of social work and co-founder of the upEND Movement, leverages his background as a former child welfare investigator to advocate for abolishing the family policing system in favor of healing- and liberation-centered alternatives. For over two decades, his scholarship—including his 2023 book Confronting the Racist Legacy of the American Child Welfare System and his work co-founding the journal Abolitionist Perspectives in Social Work—has exposed how systemic racism drives the disproportionate removal of Black children from their families. Grounded in a deep commitment to social justice, Dettlaff actively works to dismantle punitive family regulation systems and build supportive, community-based solutions.

Since becoming the Philadelphia Defender Association’s Chief Defender in November 2021, Keisha Hudson has drawn local and national attention to the critical role of public defenders while enhancing client services to build a more inclusive, people-focused organization. Her 22-year career spans extensive work as a trial and appellate lawyer, including serving as Director of Training for the Federal Defender’s Office (Capital Habeas Unit) representing clients on death row, and as Deputy Chief Defender for Montgomery County, where she co-led efforts to build one of Pennsylvania's strongest public defender offices. Before assuming her current leadership role, Hudson further advanced systemic criminal justice reform as a campaign leader at The Justice Collaborative and The Appeal, as well as a visiting professor at Temple University’s Beasley School of Law.

Stay tuned! More information coming soon.

Lei Young is the Supervising Attorney with the Disproportionality Unit at the Washington State Office of Public Defense, where she works to develop strategies and trainings for challenging racial and economic disproportionality in the legal system. Prior to that position, she spent 17 years as an attorney with The Defender Association, which is now a division of the King County Department of Public Defense. As a public defender, she represented clients in a variety of practice areas, including felony, sexually violent predator, and dependency proceedings. Her teaching experience includes serving as an Adjunct Professor at Seattle University School of Law. She received her J.D. from Cornell Law School in 2006.

Lori James Ph.D., MSW, LCSW-C is a nationally recognized executive leader, scholar, ordained minister, and sought-after speaker with more than 30 years of experience at the intersection of leadership development, social justice, criminal legal reform, and faith-based advocacy. She currently serves as the Executive Director of the National Association for Public Defense (NAPD), where she leads a national organization representing more than 27,000 public defense professionals across all 50 states and U.S. territories, advancing equity, excellence, and systemic reform in public defense.

Dr. James holds a Ph.D. in Biblical Studies (2025). Her dissertation, Chains of Grace: The Church’s Call to Minister to Previously Incarcerated Individuals, examines the theological, pastoral, and psychosocial responsibilities of the Church in responding to mass incarceration and reentry, and proposes a trauma-informed, justice-oriented model of compassionate ministry grounded in Scripture, lived experience, and qualitative research. Her work bridges biblical theology, practical theology, social work, and restorative justice, centering the voices of formerly incarcerated individuals alongside clergy perspectives.

In addition to her doctoral training, Dr. James holds a Master of Social Work from the University of Maryland and a Bachelor of Science in Social Work from Morgan State University. She is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker-Clinical (LCSW-C), seeking a DSW from Tulane University, studying women in leadership (anticipated graduation 2027).

Dr. James is also the President and CEO of Expand-NOW, LLC, a leadership development and consulting firm through which she provides executive coaching, keynote speaking, organizational development, and faith-informed leadership training to justice-centered organizations nationwide. She has taught at Towson University, Morgan State University, and the University of Maryland School of Social Work, and has authored and contributed to scholarly publications in social work, public health, criminal justice, and leadership.

A recipient of numerous honors, including the Gideon Hero Award and recognition as one of Maryland’s Top 100 Women, Dr. James is widely respected for her ability to lead with clarity, courage, compassion, and conviction. Across every space she occupies—classroom, pulpit, boardroom, and community—she remains committed to advancing dignity, restoring humanity, and equipping leaders to serve boldly at the margins.

Noemi Romero is the Deportation Defense Director for Puente Human Rights Movement. Her advocacy is rooted in lived experience: in 2013, she was detained during one of Sheriff Arpaio's work-site raids and caught in Arizona's immigration enforcement system, facing deportation. Her family worked with Puente to organize for her release that same year.

That experience shaped the course of her work. In 2014, Noemi began volunteering with Puente's Uno Por Uno Legal Clinic, supporting other families fighting for the release of their loved ones from detention. Over more than thirteen years with the clinic, she helped coordinate family visitation to Arizona's detention centers and stood alongside countless families navigating the same system that once threatened her own.

In 2019, Noemi moved into Puente's Criminal Justice organizing, where she helped lead and support families fighting to end unjust practices within Arizona's criminal justice system. Drawing on her own story, she works to empower community members through Know Your Rights education and organizes against laws and policies that tear families apart. Noemi continues to work against the crimmigration pipeline while advocating for our people.

Stanford Hickman is a New York City-based criminal defense attorney and Howard University School of Law graduate who serves as a supervisor and senior trial attorney at New York County Defender Services (NYCDS), where he mentors attorneys, litigates high-profile cases, and helps formulate policy to combat implicit bias and advance racial justice. Having launched his career with the Legal Aid Society in Queens, Hickman is now a faculty member for the Black Defender Leadership Institute, an organization he graduated from in its inaugural class, and regularly trains public defenders nationwide through programs in Kentucky, Colorado, and New Jersey. Locally, he also shares his litigation expertise as an adjunct professor for Seton Hall School of Law’s intersession trial advocacy program.

William C. Snowden is a professor at Loyola University New Orleans College of Law and the Director of The Juror Project, where he leverages public education, legal scholarship, and grassroots organizing to challenge exclusion and build community power in the jury system. A former New Orleans public defender and former Executive Director of the Vera Institute of Justice in Louisiana, Snowden has a proven track record of advancing policies to eliminate money bail and reduce jail populations. Through his multifaceted work, he critically examines institutions of justice, calling for informed resistance, civic presence, and meaningful systemic reform.

 In 1989, at just fifteen years young, Dr. Yusef Salaam was tried and convicted in the “Central Park jogger” case along with four other Black and Latino young men. The Exonerated Five spent between seven to 13 years behind bars for crimes they did not commit, until their sentences were overturned in 2002. Since then, they have received a multi-million dollar settlement from the city of New York for its injustice and have been profiled in award-winning films, including The Central Park Five documentary from Ken Burns, Sarah Burns and David McMahon and most recently the Emmy award-winning Netflix limited series When They See Us, written and directed by Ava DuVernay.

Over the past two decades, Yusef has become a family man, father, poet, activist and inspirational speaker. He continues to utilize his platform to share his story with others and educate the public about the impact of mass incarceration and police brutality rooted in our justice system. He regularly advocates for criminal justice reform, prison reform and the abolition of juvenile solitary confinement and capital punishment.

Yusef was awarded two Honorary Doctorates (2014) (2026), and is the recipient of two Lifetime Achievement Awards: one from President Barack Obama (2016) and one from President Joseph Biden (2024). More recently he has shared his story and stance on current issues on CNN, MSNBC, REVOLT TV, NPR Atlanta, FOX and more. He authored his memoir Better, Not Bitter and is the co-author of Punching the Air.

In 2024 he answered the call to govern, and joined the New York City Council to represent District 9 in Central Harlem.