Kaia 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 collaborates to lead the Transformative Justice Initiative.

From Sing Sing prison to The White House, Kaia’s work has been grounded in reimagining justice. She has taught extensively on topics such as liberation theology, ethics, punishment, race, eye contact and transformative justice. Author of Voices from American Prisons: Faith, Education, and Healing (Routledge, 2014), she is currently working on various writing projects.

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 learning/teaching in and about U.S. prisons for 25 years.