Blackburn College will host Dr. Larry D. Terry II, a distinguished criminal and restorative justice scholar, author and leader. Currently Vice President for Outreach at Penn State University, Terry will speak on “The Hope for Humanization: A Conversation on Social Justice & Second Chances.” This event, part of the Kathleen J. Eberle Memorial Lecture Series in the Social Sciences, will be held on Wednesday, April 24, at 7:00 p.m. in Bothwell Auditorium. It is free and open to the public, no tickets required.

This event at Blackburn College is funded through the Kathleen J. Eberle Memorial Lecture Series in the Social Sciences, an endowed fund established to bring guest lecturers and speakers to campus who will inspire, engage, and inform students, faculty, and the community in the area of social sciences, with a focus on social justice issues.

Terry brings a wealth of expertise and insight to his lectures, with research interests spanning police-community relations, criminal justice reform (including second-chance communities/returning citizen assistance), restorative justice, community leadership, and democratic governance. He has spent years addressing incarceration and police-community relations in the United States. In 2020, his commitment to criminal justice reform led to his appointment by Governor Ralph Northam to the Virginia State Crime Commission. Before that, Terry served as a member of Dallas’ Second Chance Community Improvement Program team — one of the nation’s first felony community courts with a mission to reduce incarceration through holistic intervention programming — and in 2017, launched the Community Leadership Academy in partnership with the Dallas Police Department.

Terry holds a doctorate in Public Affairs from the University of Texas at Dallas, a master’s degree in Public Administration from San Diego State University, and a bachelor’s degree in Black Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara. His professional experience also includes serving as the executive director for the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service and as a professor at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, both at the University of Virginia (UVA). Terry has served on the Center for Nonprofit Excellence board and as President of the Consortium of University Public Service Organizations. His work has also been widely published in esteemed professional and academic journals, further solidifying his reputation as a leading voice in social sciences.