Meet Our Change Makers

From the Mesa Refuge Gathering Room

Live Readings from Change-Making Alums

Sujatha Baliga
2020 Change Maker, 2018 Alum
Director of the Restorative Justice Project at Impact Justice

Sujatha is an attorney and restorative justice practitioner demonstrating the efficacy of survivor-centered restorative justice alternatives to traditional legal interventions. She was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2019. In a closely related area of practice, Sujatha develops and facilitates restorative justice responses to address the complex and specific needs of survivors of intimate partner and sexual violence. She brings to this work her skills as an attorney and prior professional experience as both a victim advocate and public defender, but also her own lived experience.

James Bell
Mesa Refuge Board of Directors, 2016 Jacob and Valeria Langeloth Foundation Health Writing Fellow

James Bell is the founder and executive director of the W. Haywood Burns Institute. Since 2001, he has spearheaded a national movement to address racial and ethnic disparities in the administration of the youth justice system. He has trained thousands of human services professionals and community members on a vision of well-being as the most effective way to achieve community safety.

Byron Hurt
2020 Change Maker; 2019 alum
Adjunct professor, Columbia University’s Journalism School; Consultant, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Forward Promise Initiative; Filmmaker

Byron Hurt is a documentary filmmaker, lecturer, writer, and anti-sexist activist. His documentary, “Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes” premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. At the Mesa, Bryon worked on his film “Hazing,” about six characters whose dreams are dashed by hazing practices that forever change their lives.

Irwin Keller
2019 Change Maker; 2016 West Marin Community Fellow
Spiritual Leader, Congregation Ner Shalom

Reb Irwin Keller is a spiritual leader, performer, activist, lawyer and former drag queen. Reb Irwin is a founder and convenor of “Of One Soul,” an initiative of the Interfaith Council of Sonoma County, working to defend the rights and dignity of the Muslim community and others under threat. His most visible past work focused on LGBT and HIV advocacy: Reb Irwin authored Chicago’s Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Ordinance, passed into law in 1989 and still in force; he later served as staff attorney and executive director of the AIDS Legal Referral Panel of the San Francisco Bay Area.

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