Troy Williams

Williams served 25 years of his life in juvenile and adult prison facilities. 

While incarcerated, Williams became a certified paralegal, wrote for San Quentin News in the early days, and founded a video and the first award-winning audio production program within a prison called the San Quentin Prison Report (SQPR). Williams co-founded San Quentin’s financial literacy program and F.E.E.L. philosophy (Financial Empowerment Emotional Literacy), served as the executive director of San Quentin's Restorative Justice Interfaith Roundtable, initiated TEDxSan Quentin, and spearheaded efforts to build San Quentin’s Media Lab, the San Quentin Journalism Guild, San Quentin’s satellite chapter of NorCal Society of Professional Journalists.

After being paroled, Williams went back inside as a free man to participate in TEDx San Quentin, served on the Alameda County’s Probation Chief’s Advisory Council, San Francisco District Attorney’s Formerly Incarcerated Advisory Board, Oakland’s Public Safety and Services Oversight Commission, as a board member for UnCommon Law, the Oakland Private Industry Council, the Northern Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, Open Gate’s Men's Advisory Council, and the Life Comes From It Fund Advisory Circle.

Williams has worked as a Youth Program Development Specialist, Restorative Justice Facilitator, Motivational Speaker, Editor-In-Chief of the San Francisco Bay View National Black Newspaper, Program Coordinator for the R.I.S.E. Scholars at Chabot College, Columnist for the Oakland Post, Communications Manager for Legal Services for Prisoners With Children.

Willaims was one of 20 journalists selected from 56 countries to participate in the Entrepreneurial journalism Creators Program at the Craig Newmark Graduate School Of Journalism. He was awarded a Soros Justice Fellowship where he worked to create a national multimedia platform and community engagement program initially named the Restorative Media Project (RMP). RMP helped formerly incarcerated people document their experiences and engage the public. 

Based on that ongoing work in restorative practices and media production, Williams founded Restorative Media Inc., a non-profit social impact organization whose mission is to give voice to the wisdom of lived experience, advance intellectual ownership, and distribute narratives that inspire social transformation. Restorative Media officially launched a Formerly Incarcerated Speaker Series in partnership with Alcatraz Island (i.e. National Parks Service) on November 5th, 2022.