Claire de Mézerville López is joined by co-host, Executive Director of IIRP Canada, Pat Lewis, for a special IIRP Canada series, highlighting the use of restorative practices and restorative justice across Canada. In this episode, they welcome seasoned youth care specialist Joe Blake to the Restorative Works! Podcast.

Joe joins us to discuss the representation of Indigenous youth in Canada's justice system and the cultural disconnect they often experience. He explains how restorative practices align closely with Indigenous ways of resolving conflict—centered on healing, empathy, and community. Through stories from his own practice, including a powerful anecdote involving two youth in a group home, Joe illustrates how even informal restorative conversations can defuse tension, foster understanding, and build authentic relationships.

Joe is a restorative practices instructor with IIRP Canada. He runs restorative justice training workshops and has been working in the field of Child and Youth Care for more than fifteen years. Joe has a Master of Arts in Child and Youth Care. The research focus for his Master of Arts thesis is on restorative practices with Indigenous youth within the youth criminal justice system. Joe’s key areas of interest in the field particularly lie in the youth criminal justice system, youth rights, restorative practices, social justice, Indigenous practices, and youth advocacy. He teaches these topics at several Toronto-based colleges, including Toronto Metropolitan University, Sheridan College, and Durham College. Joe serves in a variety of family counselling and court-ordered supervised access program positions. Joe identifies as Ojibwe, First Nations and is especially aware of the challenges that Indigenous and other marginalized youth face.

Tune in to learn more about how restorative justice offers a meaningful alternative to punitive systems by promoting accountability without shame, and how youth themselves begin to use these tools in their homes and schools.

Claire de Mézerville López is joined by co-host, Executive Director of IIRP Canada, Pat Lewis, for a special IIRP Canada series, highlighting the use of restorative practices and restorative justice across Canada. In this episode, they welcome dedicated community leader, Nicole Chouinard, to the Restorative Works! Podcast.

Nicole joins us to share how she and her team collaborate with schools across seven communities and over 30 schools to embed restorative practices early on—training teachers, engaging parents, and creating safe, supportive spaces for students. In a region deeply shaped by transient workforces and past emergencies, these efforts are helping young people build lasting relationships, cultural pride, and emotional safety.

Sharing her journey into restorative justice and the stories of youth who were positively affected by their involvement in restorative justice processes, she highlights the emotional depth of her work—navigating the unpredictability of human experience while advocating for victims’ voices and supporting accused youth on their healing journeys.

Nicole and her husband have called the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo (RMWB) home since 2009, where they live, work, and play. In 2012, Nicole transitioned into her role as a leader within the RCMP Support Services Branch, where she became involved with Victim Services and Restorative Justice. The exposure to these programs opened a passion to advocate for change in how justice is viewed, amplification of victims’ voices, better understanding of why a client causes harm, and improvement of community connections and supports. In 2020, Nicole started the process to grow Restorative Justice within the RMWB and has been instrumental in its success, including continued collaboration with stakeholders and the community. Since completing her Legal Assistant Diploma through SAIT in 2007, Nicole has been embedded in careers with legal backgrounds through work with quasi-judicial boards including the National Energy Board, Alberta Energy Regulator, Assessment Review Board, and the Subdivision and Development Appeal Board.

Tune in to understand how restorative practices can prevent violence, promote healing, and empower youth.

Claire de Mézerville López is joined by co-host, Executive Director of IIRP Canada Pat Lewis, for a special series with IIRP Canada highlighting the use of restorative practices and restorative justice across Canada. In this episode they welcome seasoned educator, consultant, and curriculum specialist, Angela Green, to the Restorative Works! Podcast.

Join us as Angela helps us explore the intersection of restorative practices and education in the Canadian context. Sharing how she integrates restorative practices into literacy, numeracy, and school improvement initiatives, Angela discusses the power of relationships in the classroom, the importance of psychological safety for learning, and how formative assessment fosters student engagement.

Through personal stories and practical insights, Angela challenges the misconception that relationship-building and curriculum development exist in opposition. She highlights how restorative practices enhance student voice, support universal design for learning, and create environments where both teachers and students feel empowered to take academic risks.

Angela Green is a former elementary educator and consultant who is passionate about the power of relationships and thrives on fostering positive learning communities for adults and young people. As a curriculum specialist in literacy and numeracy, Angela has engaged in instructional design, school improvement planning, and consulting using a restorative practices approach for over 30 years. She is currently an instructor for IIRP Canada and an adjunct mathematics education instructor at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada.

Tune in to learn more about how Canadian educators are using restorative practices to integrate student voice, emotional safety, and academic rigor into their classroom environments.

The Power of Storytelling is a special collaboration episode between Minorities in Publishing and the Restorative Works! Podcast. Through the power of storytelling, we aim to engage powerful leaders and activists in conversations around keeping hope in dire times; giving back power to communities; radical empathy; arts as means to tell real life stories, and the effects of genuine engagement in community resilience.

Listen to learn from critical storytellers and educators including Jennifer Coreas, Reginald Dwayne Betts, and Tiffany Yu, who have been foundational in bringing awareness to societal issues and community movements through storytelling and literacy.

Jennifer Baker is an author, editor, writing instructor, and creator of the Minorities in Publishing podcast. She’s been a recipient of NYSCA/NYFA and Queens Council on the Arts grants, a 2024 Axinn Writing Award, and was named the Publishers Weekly Star Watch SuperStar in 2019. She edited the short story anthology Everyday People: The Color of Life (2018) and is the author of Forgive Me Not (2023) a 2023 Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist, an NYPL 2023 Best Book for Teens, and 2023 Best of the Best by the BCALA.

Jennifer Coreas is the coordinator and cofounder of the program Literacy for Reconciliation for ConTextos in El Salvador and Chicago. Her work extends from curriculum development and teaching to advocacy, training, and facilitation of dialogue. She has led the work and the vision for ConTextos’s work in prisons and communities, accompanied authors in their journeys of self-discovery, and brought their stories to hundreds of teachers, psychologists, and social workers in professional development spaces. She has been recognized with numerous fellowships and scholarships including the Rocky Gooch Memorial Scholarship and the Esperanza Fellowship. She holds degrees from El Salvador in English as a second language and applied linguistics, and she received a master’s degree in English from Middlebury College in 2018.

Reginald Dwayne Betts is a poet and lawyer. A 2021 MacArthur Fellow, he is the Executive Director of Freedom Reads, a not-for-profit organization that is radically transforming the access to literature in prisons through the installation of Freedom Libraries in prisons across this country. Betts has authored several books including the poetry collections Bastards of the Reagan Era and Felon.

Tiffany Yu is the CEO & Founder of Diversability, an award-winning social enterprise to elevate disability pride, the Founder of the Awesome Foundation Disability Chapter, and the author of The Anti-Ableist Manifesto: Smashing Stereotypes, Forging Change, and Building a Disability-Inclusive World. Her TED Talk, How to Help Employees with Disabilities Thrive, has over one million views. She serves on the NIH National Advisory Board on Medical Rehabilitation Research and was a Co-Chair of the World Economic Forum Sustainable Development Impact Summit. At the age of 9, Tiffany became disabled as a result of a car accident that also took the life of her father.

Tune in to hear these influential voices speak on the power of transforming stories into actionable change in the worlds of criminal justice, disability awareness, and publishing.

Returning guests, Dr. Lindsey Pointer and Deron Bell, two inspiring voices at the intersection of education, creativity, and healing, are featured presenters for the upcoming 2025 IIRP World Conference in Chattanooga, Tennessee—Artful Integration: Exploring the Art and Science of Restorative Practices.

Lindsey, Assistant Professor at Vermont Law and Graduate School and Principal Investigator at the National Center on Restorative Justice, brings deep insight into how storytelling, literature, and visual arts expand public understanding of restorative justice. She discusses her passion for introducing restorative concepts through fiction—especially children's books—and the critical role of emotion and imagination in transformative learning.

Deron, a restorative practitioner and visionary behind the MyMusicEd app, dives into his hands-on work integrating arts and circle practices across K–12 and higher education. From kindergarten-to-college mentorship pipelines to healing circles on campus, Deron shares powerful stories and data-driven results from schools and communities embracing relationally derived arts. His work is deeply rooted in equity, cultural connection, and consistent implementation.

Together Lindsey and Deron explore how art—whether visual, literary, or musical—activates restorative practices in classrooms, counseling centers, and community spaces. They emphasize the importance of inclusivity, different learning styles, and the role of affective experiences in building empathy and understanding.

This episode offers a sneak peek at the 2025 IIRP World Conference themes: social systems, relationships, and personal well-being. Whether you're an educator, practitioner, or advocate, you’ll leave this conversation with fresh ideas and practical tools for integrating art and evidence into your restorative work.

Tune in to get inspired to reimagine how creativity can transform justice, relationships, and community healing.

Claire de Mézerville López welcomes back Kendall Hughes, D.Min., to the Restorative Works! Podcast. Join us as Dr. Hughes shares moving stories—from a group of teens who made amends after a traumatic act of vandalism, to incarcerated men working through shame and accountability in a high-security penitentiary. These stories highlight the power of restoring dignity and finding healing through meaningful change.

Reflecting on his rich learning journey, Dr. Hughes draws from Indigenous teachings, global traditions, and interfaith wisdom. His commitment to continued education and cultural responsiveness showcases why lifelong learning is essential for restorative facilitators. Whether it’s through role-playing in training sessions or learning from Ojibwe, Navajo, Somali, and Liberian communities, Hughes emphasizes the importance of humility and curiosity in this work.

Dr. Hughes has extensive experience starting and leading restorative programs in the Federal Bureau of Prisons and for the state of Minnesota Office of Restorative Practices. He began his career in a nonprofit, learning from leaders in lower income communities as they built affordable housing, places of worship, and schools. He spent two decades as a chaplain in federal prisons. Working with incarcerated men, he developed an18-month residential program offering skill building, encouraging relationships, and opportunities for transformative dialogues with survivors of violent crimes and men who had caused deep harm. In 2019, Dr. Hughes co-founded Three Rivers Restorative Justice, focusing on pre-charge restorative conferences and training facilitators. He has served on the Third Judicial District's Committee on Equity and Justice as well as the Dodge and Olmsted County Corrections Taskforce. While earning his Doctorate of Ministry, he wrote a thesis on how chaplains in the Bureau of Prisons can reduce recidivism.

Tune in to learn more from Dr. Hughes and to explore how dignity-centered approaches create space for social and personal transformation.

Claire de Mézerville López welcomes Emanuela Biffi from the European Forum for Restorative Justice (EFRJ) to the Restorative Works! Podcast.

Join us as Emanuela shares how the EFRJ is fostering a vibrant global restorative justice community through international events, training programs, and innovative initiatives like the REstART Art Festival.

EFRJ's events go beyond traditional conferences to create spaces for meaningful dialogue, cross-disciplinary collaboration, and artistic expression. From biannual conferences and thematic seminars to workshops and public art events, Emanuela discusses the intentionality behind gathering restorative practitioners, scholars, policymakers, and artists to strengthen the global movement.

Emanuela is the program coordinator at the EFRJ, an international network organization that brings together about 300 members dedicated to research, policy, and practice of restorative justice in the criminal justice system and beyond. She joined the EFRJ team in September 2013, working as a project officer in different EU-funded projects on access to restorative justice, justice and security in intercultural settings, restorative justice training, child victims, and arts. Among other responsibilities at the EFRJ, she organizes its main international events (conferences, seminars, webinars, and art festival), coordinates proposals for EU-funded and other projects, and guides the overall management of working groups and committees within the EFRJ membership. Originally from Italy, Emanuela studied Liberal Arts at the University College Maastricht (The Netherlands) and University of Gaborone (Botswana) with a focus on social psychology and criminal law and the Master program in Criminology at KU Leuven (Belgium).

Tune in to hear how restorative justice continues to evolve, respond to societal challenges, and bring communities together. Learn more about their Call for Proposals and submit your proposal by June 1, 2025!

Claire de Mézerville López welcomes Michael Washington, Ph.D., and Doug Judge, Ph.D., to the Restorative Works! Podcast. Dr. Washington and Dr. Judge share their insights on how leaders can step into complex, high-stakes environments and commit to change using relational-based approaches.

Dr. Washington, an expert in leadership development and operational excellence, shares his journey of shifting organizational culture from a command-and-control mindset to a collaborative, human-centered approach. He reflects on his work in supply chain management and how leveraging diverse perspectives transformed team engagement and efficiency.

Dr. Judge, a seasoned educator and social worker, takes us through his eye-opening experiences in the juvenile justice system and public education. He recounts moments that propelled him to advocate for systemic change—particularly addressing disproportionality in discipline and centering prevention over punishment. His stories highlight the power of restorative practices in fostering equity and disrupting exclusionary systems.

Together, they explore the intersection of leadership, social and emotional learning, and restorative practices frameworks in transforming both corporate and educational landscapes. Whether in a boardroom or a classroom, their insights reveal how intentional, relationship-driven approaches create sustainable change.

Dr. Washington has more than 30 years of experience across various business sectors, including oil and gas, consumer products, nonprofits, education, and food services. He has served as an adjunct professor at both Loyola University of Chicago in the Quinlan School of Business and Union Institute and University. Michael has extensive experience in large-scale implementation, change management, and a strong belief in human-centered and conscious-driven decision-making.

Dr. Judge has more than 25 years of experience in education, administration, large-scale implementation in schools, social work, and youth services. His career has focused on addressing systemic inequities in influential public institutions. He served as a special education teacher in a variety of public and institutional school settings, and as a school administrator at a large public alternative high school in Seattle, focused on providing restorative and healing-centered wraparound supports. As the Director of Social and Emotional Learning for Highline Public Schools, Doug led the districtwide implementation of restorative practices, positive behavior supports, and Social Emotional Learning (SEL).

Tune in to learn more about reimagining leadership through a relational lens and how Dr. Washington’s and Dr. Judge’s graduate certificate courses for the Graduate Certificate in Change Implementation in Organizations and Social Systems can support your work.