ABOUT

Kaia Stern is the cofounder and director of the Prison Studies Project at Harvard University, the first Practitioner in Residence at the Radcliffe Institute, and a Lecturer on Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where she leads the Transformative Justice Initiative.

For more than two decades, Kaia has been committed to teaching in diverse, multicultural environments. She has taught extensively from Harvard University to Sing Sing prison on topics such as ethics, the efficacy of making eye contact, and public safety. Whether leading workshops on a college campus or in a middle school, Kaia receives outstanding student evaluations and awards for teaching excellence. Integrity in relationship is her essential pedagogy, both theoretical and practical. At the most fundamental level, Kaia teaches people to value each other, share resources, and work together.

In 2008, she cofounded with Bruce Western The Prison Studies Project, which has engaged hundreds of students in transformative education. This work was made possible through a collaboration Kaia facilitated between the Massachusetts Department of Correction, Harvard University, and Boston University. In directing the Prison Studies Project, Kaia also compiled the first nationwide directory of higher education programs in US prisons. Her groundbreaking work has been cited in a number of high-profile reports, and she regularly serves as an expert and advisor to educational communities across the nation.

Kaia’s work focuses on ethics, justice, and education in prison. Kaia is the author of Voices from American Prisons: Faith, Education, and Healing (Routledge, 2014). As a consultant, she has fostered partnerships between activists and law enforcement agencies, faith leaders and community-based organizations, victims’ rights advocates and the US Department of Justice. In 2016, she was invited to the White House to participate in a roundtable discussion on criminal justice reform.

Kaia received her master’s degree from Harvard Divinity School and her PhD from Emory University. She is ordained as an interfaith minister and has been teaching in and about U.S. prisons for 25 years.