How Clean Slate Laws Create Better Cities

Alia Toran-Burrell is the Associate Program Director with Code for America’s Clear My Record initiative, where she leads partnerships and program strategies. Before joining Code for America, she managed a jail diversion program in Massachusetts, working to divert people with mental health and substance abuse issues away from the criminal legal system.

Toran-Burrell is a social worker by training and has over ten years of experience in the field, including work as a community organizer and social justice educator.

Cinnamon Janzer is a freelance journalist based in Minneapolis. Her work has appeared National Geographic, U.S. News & World Report, Rewire.news, and more. She holds an MA in Social Design, with a specialization in intervention design, from the Maryland Institute College of Art and a BA in Cultural Anthropology and Fine Art from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.

A seasoned organizer, campaigner and advocate, Sheena Meade’s calling is to transform pain into power. As a mother and an activist, Sheena knows firsthand that the communities most impacted by injustice are closest to the solutions. This truth has been a driving force behind her career in organizing, philanthropy and nonprofits.

Meade is the first Managing Director of the Clean Slate Initiative, a national bipartisan coalition advancing policies to automatically clear all eligible criminal records across the United States. Prior to joining the Clean Slate Initiative, She helped restore voting rights to 1.4 million people experiencing felony disenfranchisement as the Director of Strategic Partnerships for the bipartisan Florida Rights Restoration Coalition (FRRC) and Senior Advisor to the Second Chances Florida Campaign.

Jesse Kelley is a National Campaign Manager with the Clean Slate Initiative, where she is responsible for managing state-level campaigns in an organization focused on expanding and automating the criminal record clearing process. Previously, Kelley served as Government Affairs Manager for Criminal Justice & Civil Liberties at the R Street Institute, where she advocated, researched, and drafted policy papers relating to policing reform, juvenile justice, reintegration, post-conviction life and related topics. 

Earlier in her career, Kelley served as legislative counsel at the Marijuana Policy Project where she led the development and implementation of state advocacy initiatives and saw decriminalization and legalization successes across the country. She practiced law as a criminal defense attorney in Alabama and worked with the Mississippi Innocence Project on post-conviction issues, specifically investigating cases where convictions relied heavily on forensic evidence.