Maisha T. Winn and Lawrence (Torry) Winn Receive Chancellor’s Achievement Award for Diversity and Community

Dr. Maisha T. Winn, UC Davis Chancellor’s Leadership Professor and Faculty Director of the School of Education’s Transformative Justice in Education Center (TJE), and Dr. Lawrence (Torry) Winn, TJE Executive Director, have been honored with the Chancellor’s Achievement Award for Diversity and Community for 2018-2019 in the Special Recognition Category. This award recognizes the exemplary contributions they have made to enhancing campus inclusiveness and diversity through their leadership roles at TJE.

Founded in 2016 by the Winns, the Transformative Justice in Education Center’s mission is to serve practitioners and researchers committed to disrupting social injustices in education by creating restorative, humanizing, justice-seeking teaching and learning communities. UC Davis is the first R1 university to house a research center focused on transformative and restorative justice in education.

Housed in the School of Education, TJE’s primary focus has been on transforming teacher education, schools and community organizations. In addition to the outreach the Center performs at the local, state and national levels, TJE touches undergraduate and graduate students, faculty and staff across the UC Davis campus. TJE hosts events, trainings and circles on campus with the goal of broadening awareness of systemic racism and encouraging individuals to build community. The Winns have also introduced transformative pedagogies in seven of their undergraduate and graduate courses reaching over 700 students, and TJE—which currently employs five graduate research students—facilitates restorative justice workshops for all pre-service teachers in the School of Education.

“Through the work of the Transformative Justice in Education Center, Dr. Maisha Winn and Dr. Torry Winn have tirelessly advocated for social justice and sought to build community on campus and beyond,” said School of Education Dean Lauren Lindstrom. “In less than two years, the Transformative Justice in Education Center at UC Davis has emerged as a national leader for transformative justice and racial equity, and this special recognition for the important impact they have made is well-deserved.”