StERLING CUNIO

The Program Coordinator for Willamette University’s Transformative Justice Initiative, Sterling is both an Oregon Literary Arts Fellow and a PEN America Arts for Social Justice Fellow. He is a spoken word poet and author who dedicated life to the service of others while inside the Oregon Department of Corrections where he served nearly 28 years before being released for outstanding reformation. Sterling was a founder of the Restorative Justice Program within Oregon State Penitentiary which focused primarily on reducing harms and transforming both the street and prison culture through the use of arts, education, community engagement and conflict resolution. While incarcerated Sterling mentored countless others in positive transformation and supported them in becoming change agents as credible messengers living their amends. November 1, 2021, he released after Governor Kate Brown grant him clemency.