UNC School of Social Work commencement
May 11 @ 12:00 pm - 2:30 pm
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Social Work will honor its 2024 graduating class of master’s and doctoral students on Saturday, May 11, at noon in Memorial Hall.
Healing Justice founder and 2016 North Carolinian of the Year Jennifer Thompson will serve as commencement speaker for School of Social Work graduates.
Thompson has received countless accolades over the years: she served as a commissioner on the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission from 2013 to 2018; she’s an award-winning public speaker; and she’s testified on behalf of crime survivors and victims for criminal justice reforms before state legislatures and the United States Congress — yet she still felt she was taking a leap when she made the decision to found Healing Justice in 2015.
Prior to founding the organization, Thompson worked with other national restorative justice leaders to create a model for bringing crime survivors and exonerated individuals together to engage in restorative healing in the wake of wrongful convictions.
More than eight years after its founding, Healing Justice is a leading force in addressing the harm caused to all impacted by wrongful convictions and preventing future harm. Through its healing programs, Healing Justice offers opportunities for collective and individual healing to crime survivors, the exonerated, both sets of families, and others. In its justice programs, specialized training and assistance to criminal justice professionals is provided to expand and improve support and services for crime survivors.
