“Susan Burton is the Founder and Executive Director of A New Way of Life Reentry Projectâ„¢, a grassroots, nonprofit, sober living home for formerly incarcerated women in South Los Angeles. Having been entrapped in the criminal justice system until 1996, Susan founded A New Way of Life in 1998 and has since dedicated herself to helping other women break the cycle of incarceration, homelessness, addiction and despair. Under her leadership, the organization has provided the opportunity for a new life to over 200 women to date, and countless more to come. Susan is currently a Soros Justice Fellow, a Women’s Policy Institute Fellow, and a former Community Fellow under the Violence Prevention Initiative of The California Wellness Foundation. Her educational background includes completing a Chemical Dependency Certificate course at Southwest College in winter 2002, as well as certificate programs in Non-Violent Organizing and Three Principles of Human Development at UCLA.
Denise Johnston, M.D. is the founding director of the Center for Children of Incarcerated Parents at Pacific Oaks College in Pasadena, California. She is a child development specialist and a leading national authority on children of criminal offenders. She has studied the impact of parental crime, arrest and incarceration on children’s development.
Her talk is entitled “Maternal Imprisonment & Kinship Bonds.”
Dawn S. Davison began her career with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation in 1986 at the California Institution for Women (CIW), serving as Personnel Supervisor and Staff Services Analyst. In 1994, she was promoted to Business Manager at Calipatria State Prison, where she remained until 1997. She served as an Associate Warden at Los Angeles County State Prison from 1997 to 2000 and at the California Rehabilitation Center, Norco, from 2000 to 2002. Dawn returned to CIW in 2002 to take the position of Chief Deputy Warden. In 2004, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed her as Warden of CIW.
Warden Davison’s forward thinking has been instrumental as CIW looks forward to implementing the first baby nursery at a female correctional facility in California. CIW also boasts of its very successful Puppy Program, whereby inmates are training special assistant canines for the disabled. In August 2007, the institution celebrated the first ever Carpentry Class graduation, nation-wide, of female prison inmates; a second class graduated in March 2008.
Ms. Davison earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Loyola Marymount University in 1978 and a Masters of Science degree in Counseling from California State University, Fullerton in 1982. She also attended Chaffey College in the 80’s. Ms. Davison retired after 29 years of distinguished state service on December 2, 2009, but continues to be active in assisting female inmates in receiving the best rehabilitative programming available to them.
Her talk is entitled “Prison Environment for Incarcerated Mothers.”