Safe & Just Michigan is proud to announce that DeAnna R. Hoskins, the president and CEO of JustLeadershipUSA, will be our featured speaker at this year’s Annual Dinner Meeting. The event will take place on Thursday, Oct. 10, starting at 5:30 p.m, hosted at the Radisson Hotel Lansing at the Capitol.

Under DeAnna’s guidance, JustLeadershipUSA is committed to cutting the U.S. correctional population in half by 2030. JustLeadershipUSA empowers people most affected by incarceration to drive policy reform and works with local leaders to empower those most affected by the justice system to become agents for change. A nationally recognized leader and dynamic public speaker, Ms. Hoskins has been committed to the movement for justice, working alongside people impacted by incarceration for nearly two decades. She believes in collective leadership, advocacy for justice reinvestment and bold systems change. She leads with her own life experience, having been directly impacted by the system of incarceration and the war on drugs, and with her professional experience from the grassroots to the federal government. She is inspired to make the world more just with communities across the country and for her three children, two of whom have experienced the criminal justice system.

DeAnna has been a part of JustLeadershipUSA’s national alumni network since 2016 as a Leading with Conviction Fellow. Prior to taking the helm at JustLeadershipUSA, DeAnna was in the Obama Administration’s Department of Justice and served as the Senior Policy Advisor for Corrections and Reentry in the Bureau of Justice Assistance Division. She also served as the Deputy Director of the Federal Interagency Reentry Council. She managed the Second Chance Act portfolio, where she connected people and communities to resources through various partnerships and collaborations and managed cooperative agreements between agencies including:

  • The Department of Labor’s Clean Slate Clearinghouse;
  • The National Reentry Resource Center;
  • The National Inventory of Collateral Consequences and Convictions;
  • The National Institute of Corrections Children of Incarcerated Parents initiative;
  • And more.

Throughout her career, DeAnna has been committed to reducing stigma and harm in black and brown communities impacted by mass criminalization. Prior to joining the Justice Department, she was the founding director of re-entry for the Hamilton (Ohio) County Board of Commissioners, where she worked to reduce recidivism by addressing individual and family needs and increased countywide public safety for under-resourced communities of color. Under her leadership, correctional spending was reduced and social services were coordinated to better serve populations at risk because of decades of generational disinvestment and lack of opportunity. She has worked in local neighborhoods in Cincinnati and at the Indiana Department of Corrections on improving conditions and treatment of incarcerated people.

DeAnna is originally from Cincinnati and holds a master’s degree in criminal justice from the University of Cincinnati and a bachelor’s of social work from the College of Mount St. Joseph. She is a licensed clinical addictions counselor, a certified workforce development specialist trainer for formerly incarcerated people, a peer recovery coach and is trained as a Community Health Worker.