Shannon Ross

Shannon Ross is the Executive Director of The Community, which he founded with invaluable outside support in 2014 while he was serving a 17 year prison sentence. The Community addresses the effects of the criminal punishment system with two arms: Pre-entry and Correcting the Narrative. Pre-entry leverages their newsletter, read by half the Wisconsin prison population, and their developing educational tech platform (in partnership with Sia) will provide incarcerated people with the highest-quality level of resources, encouragement, training, education, and — most importantly — emotional intelligence content to return to society as successfully as possible, rather than trying to get prepared after or immediately before release. Their Correcting the Narrative campaign showcases the successes, humanity, and agency of people with criminal records rather than the fear, pity, and spectacle narratives. Ultimately, they seek to bring society and the system-impacted community exactly where they need each other to be.

Since his release September 2020, Shannon is also a graduate student at UW-Milwaukee, host of the All In, All Out podcast; co-owner of a trucking/mobile advertising company focused on helping system impacted people succeed in that field and a reentry consulting firm, a member of several boards and committees, and a grateful new father.