Coming from a variety of voices with first-hand experience in the field
The mission of this series is to center how to address, and build:

Logistics

SCHEDULE:

1. Monday, August 4th, 5pm PST US/CAN: BONUS INTRO SESSION with Public Defender Tristen Edwards (Oregon, USA)

2. Wednesday, August 6th, 11am PST: Anita Wadhwa and Perla Moreno, Restorative Houston

3. Wednesday, August 13th, 11am PST: Anooj Bandhari, Restorative Justice Initiative

4. Wednesday, August 20th, 11am PST: Martin Urbach, The Circle Keepers

5. Wednesday, August 27th, 11am PST: Cristina M. Cabeza, Ames Stenson and Lindsey Frischer 

6. Wednesday, September 3rd, 11am PST: Danielle DeCant, Hood River District Attorney

7. TBA

Featured Speakers & Partners

We’re honored to feature these US-Based Organizations and Speakers, all who not only work on a local and state basis but have influenced national and global work in the field:

Representing New York:

• Anooj Bhandari, Deputy Director of Community Practice: Restorative Justice Initiative, New York City.   Anooj is a Community Organizer with passions for the relationship between community education and harm reduction practice, and exploring alternatives to, diversions from, and the elimination of, the carceral state. His work focuses on building microcosms that imagine and explore the possibility of liberation within the interpersonal. He co-organized On Our Terms, a participatory action research project creating a community-centered blueprint for RJ in schools and is an RJ facilitator with the New Jersey State Bar Foundation. He is particularly invested in developing restorative practices on a community and neighborhood level. Anooj is an Artist, creating experimental performance and theater, and believing deeply in art as a process to ask quiet questions publicly, quite like restorative circle.  He is an alumnus of EmergeNYC, the Hemispheric Institute’s Fellowship for Emerging Political Performance Artists, the Lighthouse Residency at the BEAM Center, and The Bandung Residency with the Asian American Arts Alliance and the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporic Arts. Anooj is a 2023 MacDowell Fellowship recipient in the Theater Arts and a part of the Arts Faculty at Marymount Manhattan College.
• Support RJI Now

• Martin Urbach, Co-Founder of  The The Circle Keepers (Bronx/NY), whose youth-led programs blend restorative practices with creative arts and music, and who has been a key to the success of capacity building within New York and beyond towards truly diverse, equitable, and inclusive programming. 
• Support The Circle Keepers Now

• Tristen Edwards is an attorney at Metropolitan Public Defender, where she represents
  individuals charged with major felony crimes and works on policy issues related to promoting
  the use of restorative justice as an alternative to prosecution. Tristen is a Coordinating
  Committee Member of the Restorative Justice Coalition of Oregon and leads the coalition’s
  legislative advocacy efforts. She also serves on Governor Kotek’s Racial Justice Council’s
  Criminal Justice Reform Committee and chairs the Council’s Subcommittee on the Department
  of Corrections, which focuses on supporting restorative justice efforts led by incarcerated men.
  Tristen holds a strong commitment to diversity and is the founder and chair of the Oregon
  Criminal Defense Lawyer’s Association’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee. Tristen has
  been recognized for her work amplifying the voices of marginalized people and promoting
  effective and compassionate responses to harm by the Oregon New Lawyers Division, the
  Oregon Criminal Defense Lawyer’s Association, and Oregon Women Lawyers.
• LISTEN to our interview with Tristen featured on our podcast

• Danielle DeCant, Deputy District Attorney in Hood River County, Member of Circles of Peace Advisory Team in the Columbia River Gorge

• Anita Wadhwa and Perla Morena, Restorative Houston  Anita Wadhwa (she/her), is Executive Director of Restorative Houston. She is a descendant of Punjabi refugees, and views restorative justice as a form of generational healing. She authored Restorative Justice in Urban Schools: Disrupting The School-To-Prison Pipeline, and co-authored The Little Book of Youth Engagement in Restorative Justice. An Educator since 2001, Anita earned her doctorate from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Inspired by her students, teachers and mentor Janet Connors, she developed a youth-led restorative justice model in Houston. Her innovative approach to restorative justice has been recorgnized and featured on National Public Radio for its impactful work.
• Perla Morena Trauma-informed Empowerment Coach and Restorative Justice Practitioner-in-Training with 9+ years in the nonprofit sector supporting mission-driven organizations. Experienced in holding compassionate, healing-centered space for individuals navigating trauma, systemic harm, and identity-based oppression. Passionate about social equity, community care, and helping others reclaim voice, dignity, and wholeness through culturally responsive and spiritually grounded approaches.
• Support Restorative Houston Now

• Ames Stenson, (they/them): Ames hails from Denver, Colorado and has been involved in the Restorative Justice field for 15 years.  Ames currently serves as the Program Manager with the City of Englewood, CO Municipal Court Restorative Justice Program; is the ex officio board president for the Colorado Coalition for Restorative Justice Practices; and is a founding and current board member of the Restorative Rainbow Alliance. They have a bachelor’s in Criminal Justice, a master’s in Theological Studies and a master’s in Social Work and consider themselves to be a lifelong learner.
• Cristina M. Cabeza (she/they/elle) is a restorative practitioner, advocate, community organizer, and generative systems builder. Across nonprofit, for-profit, governmental, educational, and grassroots settings, Cristina is devoted to cultivating collaboration, accountability, and a deep sense of belonging. In their current role as Executive Director of the Colorado Coalition for Restorative Justice Practices (CCRJP), Cristina channels their passion for movement building by centering how we work together—not just why. Informed by their lived experiences, intersecting identities, ancestral lineages, and ongoing healing, Cristina honors and celebrates thriving life and our collective dance within it.
• Lindsey Frischer (she/they) is a lawyer, restorative justice practitioner, community organizer and somatic coach dedicated to transforming responses to harm within communities and the criminal legal system. As a founding member of the Southwest Community Justice Coalition, Lindsey helps lead efforts to build restorative pathways outside of punitive models—creating opportunities for accountability, healing, and repair. With a background in somatics, Lindsey approaches systems change work with embodiment, trauma-informed practices supporting communities and individuals to develop the capacity needed to be agents of change. They currently serve as a Justice Board Member for the CCRJP and will be guest teaching Restorative Justice & Peacekeeping at the Fort Lewis College this fall semester.
• Lynn Lee, a key contributor to the restorative justice movement in Colorado and beyond (rjcolorado.org), as well as a keeper of high-risk victim-offender dialogue, a community program volunteer, and dedicated grassroots-level practitioner and activist whose work has deeply informed the success of Colorado Best Practices and coalition building, as well as program implementation and relationship building across professionals and organizations within human systems and concerning criminal justice. She is regarded as a powerfully grounded and long-time guide to practitioners in schools, communities, prisons, courts, and beyond. Her work has impacted state, national and global efforts for over three decades.

• Molly Rowan Leach, founder of Restorative Justice on The Rise is Host/Moderator who will also be presenting materials and insights from her experiences and observations both as a former program director, active to-date facilitator, and a researcher/writer studying the global movement. Ms. Leach bore witness to her mother's fifteen-year incarceration from 1999-2014 and as a result has dedicated her life to standing for the power and potential of restorative justice.

Each session will feature a presentation followed by a live Q&A, offering you the chance to engage directly with our speakers. We’ll also share visual resources—such as sample paperwork, relationship-building tools, and real-life examples from both emerging and established RJ programs—to help you ground your practice in the current realities and evolving best practices of the field.

Whether you're new to RJ or looking to deepen your existing work, these sessions are designed to support your growth and sustainability in community-held restorative justice.

We are deeply grateful to each of our speakers for their generosity and wisdom.

Contact Us

We want to hear from you! Please email us with any questions or if you'd like to nominate a speaker and program 

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