Join us August 25th at 2:00 p.m. to hear some national and local examples of grantmaking designed to lower the risk of criminal justice system involvement. Our first speaker will be Aleah Bacquie Vaughn, Executive Director of the Circle for Justice Innovations (CJI), a national funder using a giving circle model to involve activists in community leaders in the work of criminal justice reform grantmaking. She will discuss some of the preventative projects CJI has funded, from counseling and diversion to efforts to break the school to prison pipeline. We will also hear from Shei Sanchez of the Sisters Health Foundation about their work in West Virginia and the relationship between public health and prevention. This program is free to Philanthropy West Virginia members. Email sharell@philanthropywv.org to register. 

Meet our Speakers!

Aleah Bacquie Vaughn, Executive Director of the CJI Fund. Aleah was previously Deputy Director at the American Committee on Africa and The Africa Fund, where she championed the release of political prisoners, including Nelson Mandela and Walter Sisulu, and divestment from companies doing business with South Africa’s apartheid government. In South Africa, Aleah worked for the South African Council of Churches to decrease violence in the East Rand; on the Independent Electoral Commission, to educate communities about voting in the country’s historic first democratic elections; for the World Council on Religion and Peace, which first called for a Truth and Reconciliation Commission; and for the Women’s Development Foundation, which supported electing women to national government. Returning to the US in 1996, Aleah worked on the Jubilee campaign to cancel African debt, and demand HIV/AIDS medication for African countries. As Director of Social Justice Ministries for Riverside Church, she supervised 13 social justice ministries, including The Sharing Fund, and Prison Ministry. She also co-created the Prison Family Support Group and Sojourners, a ministry to support and advocate for releasing people detained in U.S. facilities. She then served as the Director of Grants and Training at the Peace Development Fund. Aleah is the granddaughter of Irene Morgan, of the Morgan v. Virginia Supreme Court decision against segregation in interstate travel.  Aleah is the proud, fierce mother of two black boys.

Shei Sanchez, Grants and Communications Manager, Sisters Health Foundation. An Ohio transplant raised in the east coast, Shei earned her bachelor’s degree in art history from New York University and a master’s degree in teaching English from School for International Training in Brattleboro, Vermont. Before joining the Sisters Health Foundation in 2017, Shei served as an AmeriCorps VISTA member for Live Healthy Appalachia, where she helped build capacity for healthy eating and active living programs through strategic plan implementation and volunteer coordination for the children’s program Live Healthy Kids. She also has had 12 years of experience in education and leadership in both the U.S. and Southeast Asia, primarily in Thailand. As an educator, she led adult programs and taught university courses in various institutions and learning centers, in online and classroom settings. Shei also trained Thai teachers of English through the U.S. Embassy Regional English Language Office and the Royal Distance Learning Foundation. Since moving to Athens County, Shei has been involved in the community through different volunteer opportunities and community groups in the Mid-Ohio Valley. In her free time, Shei writes short stories and poetry, teaches yoga, enjoys chicken husbandry, and plays with her four dogs.