Carole Cafferty is a leader in the corrections field who has worked to equip people involved in the criminal legal system with the tools necessary to redefine their identity and reach their potential. Dedicated to promoting progressive and sustainable change, she has developed integrative programs to empower incarcerated people through therapeutic and educational opportunities, many of which have been replicated both within the United States and internationally. She has 30 years of experience working inside correctional facilities, most recently serving as superintendent of a carceral facility in Massachusetts.

Upon retirement from her career in corrections, Carole and Lee Perlman together launched The Educational Justice Institute (TEJI) at MIT in 2018, where she currently serves as co–director. TEJI is creating sustainable solutions to mass incarceration and social injustice through education and emerging technologies. In 2019, Carole was awarded the Irwin Sizer Award for the Most Significant Improvement to MIT Education at MIT. She is a graduate of Saint Anselm College (Honorary DHL May 2024) and holds a master’s degree in correctional administration from the University of Massachusetts Lowell, where she teaches in the School of Criminology and Justice Studies, which presented her the school’s Adjunct Faculty of the Year Award in 2018. Carole believes, as Bryan Stevenson says, “each person is more than the worst thing they’ve ever done” and that to create systemic change, the corrections field must align itself with the ideals of redemption and restoration.