Jon-Adrian Velasquez Program Director, The Frederick Douglass Project for Justice

With more than 23 years of lived experience, incarcerated for a crime he did not commit, Jon-Adrian Velazquez has worked tirelessly to redefine the humanity of men who are or have been incarcerated. Mr. Velazquez has seized every opportunity to learn, lead, support, and give, which earned him an early release in 2021 via executive clemency—a rare andhonorable accomplishment that attests to the moral fiber of his character.

He now helps programs that work with justice systems by bridging communications with departments of corrections, community partners, and incarcerated populations to achieve ambitious mutual goals in criminal justice policy and reform. His legendary partnership with Dateline NBC producer Dan Slepian to produce Conviction, a documentary about his own case, was one of the factors that led to massive public support for his petition for executive clemency.