Kay Pranis will be a keynote speaker at our COURAGEOUS SCHOOLS CONFERENCE on May 17. She is a national leader in restorative justice and peacemaking circles.
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Pranis works primarily as a trainer in the peacemaking circle process. She is a Senior Associate at the Center for Restorative Justice at Suffok University in Boston. She is also an adjunct professor at Simon Fraser University, Eastern Mennonite University and Southwest Minnesota State University.
Pranis has a particular interest in using circles to support social justice efforts addressing racial, economic, class and gender inequities. That interest includes using pacemaking circles to understand and respond to historical harms to groups of people.
The peacemaking circle process has been a source of energy, inspiration and continuous learning for Pranis for the past 15 years. She first learned about peacemaking circles through her work in restorative justice. From 1994 to 2003, she served as the Restorative Justice Planner for the Minnesota Department of Corrections. With the help of Barry Stuart, a judge in Yukon, Canada, and Mark Wedge and Harold Gatensby, First Nations people of Yukon, Pranis learned about peacemaking circles, and began to see how they could be used not only in the justice system, but in schools, social services, churches, families, museums, universities, municipal planning and workplaces.
Pranis has authored or co-authored several books about circles: Peacemaking Circles - From Crime to Community; The Little Book of Circle Processes A New/Old Approach to Peacemaking; Doing Democracy with Circles Engaging Communities in Public Planning; and Heart of Hope A Guide for Using Peacemaking Circles to Develop Emotional Literacy, Promote Healing & Build Healthy Relationships.