Tuesday, July 27 at 5:30 PM-6:45 PM

This kickoff event for the 2021 Diversity Forum will explore how institutions of law and justice continue to paradoxically be instruments for both reification and dismantling of oppressive systems in the United States, and what the next frontier of action and advocacy must look like to advance social justice efforts. The session will feature panelist Anthony Ray Hinton , one of the longest serving wrongfully convicted death row prisoners in the nation’s history. Mr. Hinton was exonerated with the help of the Equal Justice Initiative in 2015.

Anthony Ray Hinton

Anthony Ray Hinton survived for 30 years on Alabama's death row. His story is a decades-long journey to exoneration and freedom. In 1985, Mr. Hinton was convicted of the unsolved murders of two fast-food restaurant managers based on the testimony of ballistics experts for the State who claimed that the crime bullets came from a dusty revolver found in Mr. Hinton's mother’s closet. Without the benefit of a competent expert to challenge the State’s theory (Mr. Hinton’s lawyer hired a ballistics expert who was blind in one eye), an all-white jury convicted Mr. Hinton and he was sentenced to death. After years of petitioning to have the revolver re-analyzed, three independent experts concluded that the bullets could not have been fired from his mother’s revolver. With the assistance of the Equal Justice Initiative, led by attorney Bryan Stevenson, Mr. Hinton was freed in 2015. Since his release, Mr. Hinton has traveled the world sharing his story and discussing the changes that need to be made to prevent similar injustices from happening to other people. In 2018, Mr. Hinton published The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row , which was selected for Oprah’s Book Club and is a New York Times bestseller. In 2019, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from St. Bonaventure University.

Candi Castleberry Singleton

Candi Castelberry Singleton Candi Castleberry Singleton is the Vice President of Diversity Partnership Strategy & Engagement at Twitter. She is also the founder of the award-winning Dignity & Respect Campaign , which has helped organizations create more inclusive work environments. As an experienced diversity and inclusion leader, she created The Bolt-On to Built-In Model ™ featured in her chapter of Crossing the Divide: Intergroup Leadership in a World of Difference . She has developed successful strategies and initiatives in technology, telecommunications, and healthcare including Xerox, Sun Microsystems, Motorola, and UPMC.

Candi has served as adjunct professor at Carnegie Mellon University. She received an MBA from Pepperdine, a bachelor’s degree from UC Berkeley, and completed the Stanford Executive Human Resources program.

ReNika Moore

ReNika Moore is the Director of the ACLU Racial Justice Project (RJP). She leads a dedicated team that uses litigation, advocacy, grassroots mobilization, and public education to dismantle barriers to equality for people of color. RJP takes on issues in a range of areas including education, housing, the economy, and the criminal justice system. Prior to joining the ACLU, ReNika served as Labor Bureau Chief of the New York Office of the Attorney General. During her tenure, the Labor Bureau was nationally recognized for aggressively enforcing labor standards on behalf of low-wage workers who were disproportionately people of color and immigrants. ReNika led the bureau’s enforcement in emerging areas, such as the misuse of anticompetitive labor agreements and, after the 2016 presidential election, worked to lead multi-state efforts to fight federal rollbacks of critical labor protections. ReNika also oversaw the bureau’s appellate representation of New York State’s Department of Labor and Workers Compensation Board.

Sheila Velez Martinez

Professor Sheila I. Velez Martinez is the Jack and Lovell Olender Professor of Asylum Refugee and Immigration Law, the Co-Director Center for Civil Rights and Racial Justice, and the Director of the Immigration Law Clinic at the University of Pittsburgh. Her research interests include: immigrant women, critical pedagogy and Caribbean migrations. She is an affiliate faculty member of the Center for Latin American Studies. She serves on the Board of Friends of Farmworkers of PA and is the Chair of the Board Steering Committee for Latina and Latino Critical Legal Theory Inc. (LatCrit). Professor Velez Martinez serves as the NCAA Faculty Athletics Representative for the University of Pittsburgh.

Tomar Pierson-Brown, Moderator

Tomar Pierson-Brown is the Associate Dean for Equity and Inclusive Excellence at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. She is also a Clinical Associate Professor of Law and Director of the Health Law Clinic. Under her leadership, the Health Law Clinic has operated as a medical-legal partnership with UPMC-Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh since 2015.

Pierson-Brown previously served as a Clinical Instructor and Supervising Attorney in the Juvenile and Special Education Law Clinic at the University of the District of Columbia – David A. Clarke School of Law. Prior to academia, she was an attorney with Children’s Law Center in Washington, D.C., and an Equal Justice Works fellow with the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland.

Pierson-Brown received a J.D. from Case Western Reserve University School of Law, and an LL.M. in clinical legal education and systems change from the University of the District of Columbia – David A. Clarke School of Law.

If you require an accommodation to participate in this event, please contact the Office for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion at diversity@pitt.edu by July 21