DeAnna Hoskins

DeAnna Hoskins is President/CEO of JustLeadershipUSA (JLUSA). Dedicated to cutting the US correctional population in #halfby2030, JLUSA empowers people most affected by incarceration to drive policy reform. A nationally recognized leader and dynamic public speaker, Ms. Hoskins has been committed to the movement for justice, working alongside people impacted by incarceration for nearly two decades. Ms. Hoskins believes in collective leadership, advocacy for justice reinvestment, and bold systems change. She leads with her own life experience, having been directly impacted by the system of incarceration and the war on drugs, and with her professional experience from the grassroots to the federal government. She is inspired to make the world more just with communities across the country and for her three children, two of whom have experienced the criminal justice system.

Ms. Hoskins has been a part of JLUSA’s national alumni network since 2016 as a Leading with Conviction Fellow. Prior to taking the helm at JLUSA, Ms. Hoskins was in the Obama Administration’s Department of Justice and served as the Senior Policy Advisor (Corrections/Reentry) for the Department’s Bureau of Justice Assistance Division. She managed the Second Chance Act portfolio where she connected people and communities to resources through various partnerships and collaborations and managed cooperative agreements between agencies including the Department of Labor’s Clean Slate Clearinghouse, supporting formerly incarcerated people with expunging their records, the National Reentry Resource Center, the National Inventory of Collateral Consequences and Convictions, the National Institute of Corrections Children of Incarcerated Parents initiative, and more. She also served as the Deputy Director of the Federal Interagency Reentry Council.

Throughout her career Ms. Hoskins has been committed to reducing stigma and harm in black and brown communities impacted by mass criminalization. Prior to joining the Justice Department, she was the founding Director of Reentry for Ohio’s Hamilton County Board of County Commissioners where she worked to reduce recidivism by addressing individual and family needs and increased countywide public safety for under-resourced communities of color. Under her leadership correctional spending was reduced and social services were coordinated to better serve populations at risk because of decades of generational disinvestment and lack of opportunity. She has worked in local neighborhoods in Cincinnati and at the Indiana Department of Corrections on improving conditions and treatment of incarcerated people.

Ms. Hoskins is originally from Cincinnati, Ohio and holds a Master’s Degree in Criminal Justice from the University of Cincinnati and a Bachelors of Social Work from the College of Mount St. Joseph. She is a Licensed Clinical Addictions Counselor, a certified Workforce Development Specialist trainer for formerly incarcerated people, a Peer Recovery Coach, and is trained as a Community Health Worker.