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Courtney Robinson

Founder, Excellence & Advancement Foundation

An outspoken advocate and change-maker who experienced parental incarceration during childhood, Courtney Robinson is the founder of the Excellence & Advancement. As an adult, she spent 10 years researching the impact of schooling, race, and incarceration. Her research led her to engage in the movement to break the school-to-prison pipeline in Texas.

Originally from Dallas, Courtney attended Howard University in Washington D.C. Courtney entered graduate school at the University of Texas at Austin in 2002. In 2008, she became a volunteer for the Texas Youth Commission, helping the agency recover from devastating abuse allegations and implement reforms. In 2014, she founded the Excellence & Advancement Foundation to address the school-to-prison pipeline in Austin, Texas. Her work is inspired both by her family history, her children and the inspiration she has drawn from the resilience of the young people impacted by the school discipline and criminal justice systems.

Courtney joined us for our virtual Roundtable convening “Examining Justice Reform and the Social Contract in the United States: Implications for Justice Policy and Practice.”