Jenna Kress was born and raised in the Washington DC area, and is now living in San Jose, California. She joined Impact Justice’s Restorative Justice Project as a program associate in July 2021 with a commitment to disrupting the harmful criminal legal system, uplifting alternative community accountability processes, and fostering meaningful experiences and dialogues that promote transformative community building and healing. Jenna supports community-based organizations across the country in developing and launching their own restorative justice diversion programs that are oriented around the needs of those harmed, hold young people accountable for their actions, and are rooted in addressing the racial and ethnic disparities within the system.
Jenna received her bachelor’s degree in social work from the University of Georgia and went on to earn her master’s degree in social work from the University of Washington in Seattle. As part of these education programs and studies in Cape Town, South Africa, Jenna was able to support individuals and families impacted by interpersonal violence and mass incarceration. Since moving to the Bay Area, she worked at Community Works West as a senior coordinator for the Restorative Community Conferencing (RCC) program, which is the first pre-charge restorative justice diversion program in the country. In this role, she supported program development efforts and facilitated the restorative justice process for serious incidents of harm. All of these experiences provide insight and skills that support her efforts within the Restorative Justice Project at Impact Justice.