Leaders

Founder & Executive Director

The Rev. Nikia Smith Robert. Ph.D.

Founder & Executive Director

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The Rev. Nikia Smith Robert, Ph.D. is a nationally and internationally recognized thought-leader and speaker on the topics of mass punishment, abolition, religion, and Black motherhood. Her expertise as a womanist abolitionist scholar focuses on Black women’s experience with criminality and religious responses to galvanize a faith-based abolitionist movement.

As Executive Director, Dr. Robert  expanded her dissertation research and founded Abolitionist Sanctuary©, a 501(c)3 bipartisan nonprofit organization purposed with training a national coalition of Black-serving churches, civic organizations and communities to unite against the moral crisis of mass incarceration and the criminalization of impoverished Black motherhood.

Dr. Robert is also an Assistant Professor of Ethics and Social Justice at the University of Kansas and ordained clergy in the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

Prior to becoming an academic scholar, clergy and social entrepreneur, Dr. Robert worked for more than ten years in Big Four Public Accounting firms doing expatriate and international taxes. She also worked as a Franchise Controller for the largest Investment Bank on Wall Street.

Dr. Robert is a native New Yorker and married with three children.

Founding Board of Directors

Candice Marie Benbow

Advisor and Founding Board Member, Abolitionist Sanctuary

Rev. Dr. Willie D. Francois, III

Board Chair and Founding Board Member, Abolitionist Sanctuary

Tabatha L. Jones Jolivet, Ph.D.

Founding Board Member
Abolitionist Sanctuary

Rev. Evan Regis Bunche

Founding Board Member
Abolitionist Sanctuary

Rev. Stephen A. Green

Founding Board Member
Abolitionist Sanctuary

Rev. Dr. Najuma Smith-Pollard

Founding Board Member
Abolitionist Sanctuary

Shaelle Etienne

Founding Board Member
Abolitionist Sanctuary

Obery M. Hendricks Jr., Ph.D.

Founding Board Member
Abolitionist Sanctuary

Mr. Jamye Wooten

Founding Board Member
Abolitionist Sanctuary

Contributors

Ashley Blakeney

Executive Director
Crenshaw Dairy Mart

Dr. Toni M. Bond

Founding Mother
Reproductive Justice

Patrisse Cullors

Artist, Abolitionist, Writer

Alejandra Lemus

Ph.D. Student
University of New Mexico

Vincent W. Lloyd, Ph.D.

Professor, University
of Villanova

Candice Marie Benbow

Theologian, Writer,
Educator

Vonice "Nissi" Berry

Author, Poet

noé olivas

Co-Founder,
Crenshaw Dairy Mart

Natasha L. Robinson, Esq.

Assistant Teaching Professor, Roosevelt University

Najuma Smith Pollard

Assistant Director, USC Center for Religion and Civic Culture

Rev. Dr. Willie D. Francois

Board Chair and Founding Board Member, Abolitionist Sanctuary

STAAR Interns

Abolitionist Sanctuary serves as a field education placement as part of its Student Training Abolition Ambassador Research (STAAR) internship program.

2023-2024 STARR Interns

  • Adriana Rivera, Ph.D. Student and Curriculum Intern
  • Vaughn Brown,
  • Satena Charles-Luciani
  • Jazz Reeves
  • Bithiah Negusu

We are grateful for our previous interns who served Abolitionist Sanctuary.

  • Adriana Rivera, Curriculum Intern
  • Elizabeth Howel-Egan, Legal Intern
  • Krissah Rolle, Media Intern
  • Genevive Krieger, Public Policy Intern