Program Participants
10 for 10 Prize: Celebrating Changemakers
Meet the inspiring leaders driving impact in their communities. The 10 for 10 Prize honors bold visionaries tackling today’s most pressing challenges. Explore the stories, photos, and bios of our current and past cohort members—trailblazers transforming justice, building equity, and creating opportunity.
2025 Participants
Marlon BaCote (he/him)
Marlon BaCote is a passionate mental health advocate, published author, and PhD candidate in Psychology and Counseling. After overcoming nearly three decades of addiction and incarceration, he now serves as a Qualified Mental Health Professional, helping others navigate recovery and healing. His memoirs, Journey of Redemption and Heartbreak, have inspired many by sharing his powerful story of transformation. Marlon uses his lived experience and academic insight to challenge stigma and advocate for systemic change in how society treats addiction and mental health. He is committed to empowering others through hope, faith, and community.
La'Nesha Baldwin (she/her)
La’Nesha, a proud first-generation Chicagoan and devoted social worker, is passionate about expanding mental health support across diverse communities. Known for her empathy and versatility, she meets people where they are and leads with intention. As her family’s matriarch, she carries a deep sense of responsibility—creating space for healing, growth, and legacy. Rooted in holistic wellness and guided by the belief that everything happens in divine timing, La’Nesha is building a restorative business to share her vision of intentional living. In her free time, she loves cooking, laughing with loved ones, and blasting music on long scenic drives.
David Carrillo (he/him)
While serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole, I earned multiple degrees, including an MBA. Leveraging that education, I became the first currently incarcerated person in the nation to be hired by a university as an adjunct professor—earning equal pay to teach undergraduate college courses to others who were incarcerated. On January 31, 2024, I was granted clemency and released. Since then, I’ve continued teaching college-level programs inside correctional facilities and launched a private consulting firm focused on addressing the critical lack of information surrounding plea bargains. My mission is to help close the information gap that drives the mass plea bargaining system in the United States.
Ekeythia (Kiki) Dunston (she/her)
Kiki Dunston is a strategic visionary and a dedicated advocate for justice-impacted individuals, committed to transforming systems and creating opportunities for those affected by the criminal legal system. With a deep understanding of systemic challenges and an innovative approach to problem-solving, Kiki has spearheaded numerous initiatives that provide support, resources, and pathways to reintegration for formerly incarcerated individuals. Her work has been instrumental in driving policy changes, fostering community partnerships, and raising awareness about the unique struggles faced by justice-impacted populations. Kiki's unwavering dedication to social equity and their ability to inspire and lead others make them a powerful force for positive change in the pursuit of a more just and inclusive society. Kiki remains inspired by the anonymous quote: “A successful woman is one who can build a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at her.”
Antoniese Gant (he/him)
Antoniese (Tony) Gant is a dedicated advocate for criminal legal system reform and a consultant for multiple non-profit organizations. With extensive experience in building nonprofit and policy platforms, Tony previously served as Co-Executive Director of Nation Outside, a grassroots Michigan organization led by formerly incarcerated individuals. Having spent 20 years in the Michigan Department of Corrections, his personal experiences inspire his commitment to transformative change. He leads statewide campaigns focused on fair chance housing laws, voting access, clean slate laws, and conditions of confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic. Through mobilizing communities and individuals, Tony drives significant change and impact in Michigan.
Emiliano López (he/him)
Emiliano López is a Los Angeles-based artist, activist, and advocate at the intersection of technology, art, and justice. He is the Founder and Executive Director of Project Protocol, an online platform that empowers people on parole to review their parole officers and share their experiences anonymously. The platform also offers a resource directory for essential support in navigating reentry. The vision for Project Protocol was conceived from Emiliano’s personal experiences while on parole, and it is what drives his commitment to dismantling harmful systems and promoting transparency and accountability.
Fatima Monteiro (she/her)
Fatima Monteiro is the Campaign Strategist on the National Advocacy Team at the Fines & Fees Justice Center, where she helps lead national campaigns to end harmful fines and fees policies. She brings over five years of experience in criminal legal reform, with a focus on community engagement, storytelling, and systems change. Fatima recently completed her undergraduate degree and is pursuing a master’s in public policy. She is the founder of She Speaks, We Move, a platform that helps justice-impacted women use their stories to drive advocacy and policy reform. Based in Chicago, Fatima is also a proud wife and mother of three.
Rosemary Rivera (she/her)
Rosemary Rivera is a formerly incarcerated, formerly homeless, light skinned Puerto Rican lesbian with a Black family living in a white world and demanding change. She began her movement work as a volunteer before being hired as an organizer. She later became an Organizing and Training Director for 10 years before becoming an Executive Director at Citizen Act ion of New York. Rosemary has been with her partner 32 years raising 3 children and together they are the proud grandparents of four beautiful grandchildren. Rosemary's passion is changing systems for the most marginalized in our society and is currently building a campaign and organization called End Prison Violence.
ML Smith (she/her)
ML Smith is a criminal punishment system-impacted advocate, abolitionist and activist who experienced incarceration during the COVID-19 pandemic, which made her intimately aware of the dire reality faced by our imprisoned populations, as well as the egregious actions and apathy of institution staff and administrators.
Being a Black, disabled, system-impacted woman who has experienced generational poverty is the foundation of her ideological framework, rooted in advocating for those suffering & struggling within a society created and built to oppress, marginalize and dehumanize targeted, vulnerable communities. ML is dedicated to using her experiences, knowledge, determination and voice in the struggle for equity, justice and recognition of humanity.
Andy Williams Jr. (he/him)
Andy “Hood Candidate” Williams, Jr., is an abolitionist, activist, and advocate. He is the founder of AWJ Ministries, a marketplace ministry that sets people free from mental, physical, and spiritual bondage. He has co-founded a series of social enterprises, including National Coalition for Prisoner Voting Rights, Jailhouse and Street Lawyers University, and the Radical Republicans.
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