Leon Theodore is the Dallas County Project Director at the Texas Center for Justice and Equity, having joined the organization in fall 2019. He has been active in the reentry field since 2006, and he has done extensive volunteer work in Orlando, Florida, where he established his own nonprofit organization after recognizing a lack of local support services. Leon's passion for reentry, as well as social and employment development, stems from his own experience with the criminal punishment system and the stigma attached to people returning from incarceration. He is a proponent of youth diversion programs, especially as it relates to youth of color and the education system, and he launched the P.E.P. (Perception Equals Potential) Initiative in early 2020, seeking to improve outcomes for Dallas-area students, families, and communities; in 2022, Leon was selected as one of 7 people nationally to receive the Canary Impact Fund's first-ever "10 for 10 Prize" for that work. Leon earned a Master of Social Work from Texas A&M-Commerce in 2019, and he will pursue a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership Policy in fall 2023.
To contact Leon, please email LTheodore@TexasCJE.org.