Opening Plenary: From Incarceration to Innovation: Redefining Reentry Through Lived Experience

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Veronica Ballard Cunningham is the Executive Director/CEO of the American Probation and Parole Association (APPA) since 2016. She has responsibility for the day-to-day operations of the professional membership association for individuals serving in pretrial, probation, parole agencies, and community-based corrections and supervision. Mrs. Ballard Cunningham has a Master’s Degree in Criminal Justice from Louisiana State University. She was a justice system practitioner and reentry professional for more than 35 years – holding leadership positions as the Director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice-Parole Division and Chief of the Cook County Adult Probation Department in Chicago.

Tuan Huynh is an artist and founder of VietFive Coffee, building a brand where coffee becomes a vehicle for connection and impact. Born in Vietnam and raised in the Midwest, Tuan turned his perspective into a successful career as an award-winning Creative Director before channeling that experience into entrepreneurship. Through VietFive, he sources coffee from his family’s farm in Vietnam and brings it to Chicago—creating not just a product, but a purpose-driven platform. Through BeLikeWater.org, and their initiative Grounds To Greatness, he and his wife Anna is creating pathways to employment, dignity, and upward mobility for justice-impacted individuals and people with disabilities.

Kerwin Pittman was born in Landstuhl, Germany and raised in Raleigh, North Carolina. He is a nationally recognized social justice advocate, criminal justice reform policy expert, and the first formerly incarcerated person in United States history to purchase a prison, a transformational milestone he is using to create a first-of-its-kind reentry and workforce development campus in Goldsboro, North Carolina. Kerwin’s advocacy is deeply rooted in his lived experience. After spending 11½ years incarcerated, including more than a year in solitary confinement, he returned home with a commitment to disrupt the cycles of incarceration and injustice that impact so many. That commitment led him to found Recidivism Reduction Educational Program Services, Inc. (RREPS), where he serves as Founder and Executive Director. RREPS is a statewide nonprofit focused on reducing recidivism through mobile service delivery, digital tools, reentry housing, and community-led solutions across North Carolina. Kerwin also serves as the Director of Policy and Programs for Emancipate NC, an organization working to dismantle structural racism in the criminal legal system. His work spans local, state, and national systems, and he holds leadership roles on numerous state-level commissions, including: ● The North Carolina Task Force for Racial Equity in Criminal Justice, created and chaired by Governor Roy Cooper and Attorney General Josh Stein, where Kerwin helps shape statewide criminal justice policy reforms with a focus on equity and transparency. ● The Joint Reentry Council 2030, also created by Governor Roy Cooper, where Kerwin helps develop and implement directives in partnership with every state cabinet agency to coordinate a whole-of-government approach to improve reentry outcomes for formerly incarcerated individuals. ● The State Reentry Council Collaborative, a multi-agency effort created by Governor Cooper to align state and community partners around evidence-based reentry practices and expand access to employment, housing, healthcare, and other supports for justice-impacted individuals. ● The Statewide Office of Violence Prevention Advisory Board, where Kerwin plays a key role in helping stand up North Carolina’s first-ever statewide violence prevention infrastructure, ensuring community voices help shape the office’s priorities and investment strategies.