Topeka K. Sam, founder and executive director of The Ladies of Hope Ministries, is joining the Board of Directors of The Marshall Project. She is also the co-founder of Hope House NYC, a safe housing space for women and girls.
“I am honored and humbled to join The Marshall Project Board of Directors,” said Sam. “The journalism produced by The Marshall Project helps to expose the deep injustices inside the carceral state and highlights the urgent need for criminal justice reform. By publishing voices from inside and outside the system, The Marshall Project has helped to broaden the struggle for justice and fairness. In bringing me onto the Board of Directors as the first formerly incarcerated African-American woman, The Marshall Project is enacting its commitment not only to diversity but to inclusion of a voice that is not heard enough: one directly impacted by prison. I look forward to the work ahead.”
“The Marshall Project is thrilled that Topeka Sam is joining our board of directors,” said Carroll Bogert, president of The Marshall Project. “She will bring a powerful life experience and unique voice to our conversations, and her network among criminal justice reformers is wide and deep. We're honored that she will share those talents with our board.”
In addition to serving on the board of The Marshall Project and Grassroots Leadership, Sam is a Beyond the Bars 2015 Fellow and a 2016 Justice-In-Education Scholar, both from Columbia University; a 2017 Soros Justice Advocacy Fellow working on probation and parole accountability; a 2018 Unlocked Futures Inaugural Cohort Member; a 2018 Opportunity Agenda Communications Institute Fellow; director of #Dignity Campaign for #cut50; and Host of “The Topeka K. Sam Show” on SiriusXM UrbanView.
Since her release from federal prison in May 2015, Sam has worked tirelessly for criminal justice reform, and her initiatives have been covered by Vogue, SalonTV, Vice, and the New York Times. Most recently she has been featured in Glamour Magazine and Black Enterprise for being “the black woman behind the video that led to the Trump clemency of Alice Johnson.”