Wendy Jason

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

ABOUT WENDY JASON

Wendy Jason combines her background in restorative practices, mental health, and education with her passion for the arts to foster vibrant, inclusive, and nurturing communities that model and promote inclusion, collective care, and equity. A 25-year career in social services enabled Wendy to witness and understand of the myriad ways in which the carceral system inflicts harm on an individual, communal, and societal level. Wendy is committed to supporting individual and social change through cultivating relationships grounded in collaboration, trust, authenticity, empathy, and integrity. Wendy holds a BA in Sociology from Eastern Connecticut State University, studied Transformative Language Arts at Goddard College, and completed her MA in Coexistence and Conflict through Brandeis University’s Alan B. Slifka Program in Intercommunal Coexistence. Her research focused on the intersection of the arts and peacebuilding and culminated in a thesis based on a year spent facilitating creative writing and peace education groups within a county jail. Wendy has taught courses on social justice and conflict transformation in Georgetown University’s Program on Justice and Peace, researched and reported on issues related to restorative justice and the arts for Change.org, and served as the manager of the Prison Arts Coalition website for nine years. In 2019, she founded the Justice Arts Coalition (JAC). Through the sharing of stories and resources, and by using the arts as a bridge between people inside and outside of prison, JAC unites teaching artists, arts advocates, and currently and formerly incarcerated artists and allies, harnessing the transformative power of the arts to reimagine justice.