Van Jones is the President & Co-Founder of Dream Corps. Current initiatives include: #cut50, #YesWeCode, Green For All, and #LoveArmy. These innovative solutions “close the prison doors, open the doors of opportunity, into a new green economy.” A Yale-educated attorney, Van has written two New York Times Bestsellers: The Green Collar Economy, the definitive book on green jobs, and Rebuild the Dream, a roadmap for progressives. Van is a correspondent for CNN and regular guest on political talk shows. In 2009, Van worked as the green jobs advisor to the Obama White House. There, he helped run the inter-agency process that oversaw $80 billion in green energy recovery spending.
Jessica Jackson Sloan is National Director of #cut50, a bipartisan initiative to end mass incarceration that she co-founded with Van Jones. Jessica began her career as a human rights attorney representing California death row inmates in their appeals. She became involved in the fight for criminal justice reform after her own family was torn apart by her husband’s incarceration. In 2013, Jessica was elected to the Mill Valley City Council, becoming the youngest elected official in Marin County history. In 2016, she was elected by her fellow Councilmembers to serve as Mayor. In addition to her duties on the City Council, Jessica serves as Mill Valley’s representative to the Association of Bay Area Governments and Marin County’s Major Crimes Oversight Task Force. In her personal capacity, Jessica sits on The Committee for a Fair Judiciary and represents Congressman Jared Huffman on the Democratic Central Committee of Marin.
#cut50 is a national effort to safely and smartly reduce our incarcerated population by 50 percent over the next 10 years — using proven, bipartisan solutions. With humanization, legislation, and innovation we are building a more humane criminal justice system that keeps families together and communities safe.