Judy Clarke

Judith Tolleson Clarke, MA, Virginia Center for Restorative Justice (VCRJ) Executive Director, completed her MA in Conflict Transformation with a concentration in Restorative Justice at Eastern Mennonite University in 2011. Under a three year grant from the US Department of Labor and Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, Judy provided restorative justice training and technical assistance in 10 different high poverty, high crime areas located throughout the US. Judy teaches a class titled “An Introduction to Restorative Justice” which is certified by the Office of the Executive Secretary of the Virginia Supreme Court for 8 hours of Continuing Mediation Credit.  She established a restorative justice diversion program for the Richmond City and Henrico County Juvenile Court Service Units which is implemented by volunteer Restorative Justice Facilitators.  At the end of their first year, these volunteers diverted approximately 50 plus cases with an 87% success rate.  A former special education teacher, Judy wrote a values-based, restorative justice curriculum, “How to Handle Conflict” and taught it to over three thousand male and female inmates.  She also wrote and implemented a successful, 10 week restorative justice curriculum titled “Game Changers” which included an introduction to mindfulness to third graders in an after-school program in a Henrico County Public School.