DR. DIVINE PRYOR Ph. D.
Advisory Board Member
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He is recognized by many, as a true problem solver who facilitates the integration of outcome-based efforts that minimize risks and maximize results. He has done an incredible job with building the infrastructure of the People’s Police Academy in the City University of New York.
In 2003 he was appointed by the Council of State Governors to the National Re-entry Policy Council, where he and over 100 national experts produced the most voluminous work on prison re-entry in the nation. In 2012, Dr. Pryor was appointed by the Minority Leader of the New York State Senate to Co-Chair the New York State Anti-Gang Violence Reduction Commission. In addition to his leadership roles on local and national boards, he is a member of the NYC Mayors Commission on Community Reinvestment and the Mayor’s Task Force on Gun Violence Reduction.
Dr. Pryor is currently the Chair of the NYC Criminal Justice Clergy Task Force and a graduate of the NYPD Citizens Police Academy. He is often called to provide consultation and advice to Supreme Court Justices, District Attorneys’ Offices, members of city, state and federal government and others in the criminal justice field. The Center for Nuleadership on Urban solutions, which he co-founded serves as a national model for formerly incarcerated professionals who have devoted their lives and careers to use their personal experience to offer innovative solutions to social ills. It is the first of its kind in the nation, as a leading public policy, research, advocacy and training center founded by formerly incarcerated professionals who represent every discipline from law to medicine.
He has been particularly interested in the issues related to mass incarceration and social concerns that are addressed by both social service non-profit organizations and governmental agencies. He has traveled extensively providing expertise and counsel on criminal justice issues to academicians, activists and advocates, judges, defense attorneys, prosecutors and others, for the purpose of influencing policy decisions. He has influenced alternatives to incarceration programming, resulting in the reduction of collateral consequences associated with people who have had criminal justice involvement.
Before ever attending a formal institution, Divine Pryor acquired his very first degree from the “school of hard knocks” with a Ph.D. from UCLA. That is the “University on the Corner of Lenox Avenue” in New York City. While incarcerated, he would rediscover his love for learning and resume his educational journey, obtaining both a B.A. and M.A. in Sociology from S.U.N.Y. New Paltz After his release in 1991 he would go on to complete his graduate studies at Suffield University in 2001 and continue to build a career in criminal justice, resulting in becoming one of the most sort out innovators and problems solvers in criminal justice in the nation.
In the words of Rev. Pryor, “God only blessed me, so that I could be a blessing to others”.