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Sheila Meiman is an experienced advocate, practitioner, consultant, and analyst in the field of higher education in prison. She has expertise in a range of topics in her field, including STEM education, financial aid, program creation and expansion, student and academic support, data, transfer and direct-to-work credentials, and technology. She has over a dozen years of experience as a program administrator, managed a first-round Second Chance Pell site, and has served as a mathematics professor for both campus and system-impacted students. She currently serves as the Prison Education Specialist at the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA). Professor Meiman holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Carnegie Mellon University, as well as a Master of Science in Engineering from Purdue University. She also holds a Masters Certification in Program/Project Management from American University. In their Vanguard Series, NJBIZ named Professor Meiman one of the 2018 Leaders in Higher Education in New Jersey.

Richard Ray is professor and provost emeritus at Hope College (Holland, Michigan), serving there 1982-2024. He served as the college’s chief academic officer, dean for the social sciences and chair of the Department of Kinesiology. He is the author of more than 40 peer reviewed journal articles and five books on sports medicine, leadership in higher education, health care management, and pilgrimage memoirs. He co-founded the Hope-Western Prison Education Program, a Hope College degree program at Muskegon Correctional Facility. He serves as the Chair of the Steering Committee of the Michigan Consortium for Higher Education in Prison, an organization that advocates for best practice in and expansion of college-in-prison programs in Michigan.

Max Kenner is founder, executive director, and holds the Tow Chair for Democracy and Education, at the Bard Prison Initiative (BPI) which enrolls incarcerated women and men in academic programs that culminate in degrees from Bard College. A leading advocate for the restoration of college-in-prison, Kenner frequently speaks publicly on issues of education and criminal justice. He is co-founder of the Consortium for the Liberal Arts in Prison, which supports colleges and universities in establishing college-in-prison projects nationwide, the Bard Microcollege, which establishes rigorous, tuition-free college opportunity in partnership with community-based institutions, and the Bard Baccalaureate, a full-scholarship program that seeks out adult learners whose educations have been interrupted or deterred. At Bard College, Kenner serves as Vice President for Institutional Initiatives and Advisor to the President on Public Policy & College Affairs. He has been a fellow-in-residence at the Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History at Harvard University, has served on the New York State Council on Community Re-Entry and Reintegration from 2014, and currently sits on the New York State Council on Community Justice.