Discussion Topics: higher education in prison | history and trajectory of mass incarceration | liberation theology/epistemology | faith-based approaches to dealing with trauma | theo-philosophical considerations of contemporary events | coalition building | mobilizing national campaigns and movement ecology
Travels from: Washington, D.C.
Reverend George Chochos is an Albany, New York native who, in 2008, graduated with his AA in Social Studies from Bard College through the Bard Prison Initiative. He continued his studies and has since earned an MPS in Urban ministry from New York Theological Seminary, an MDIV and an STM in Theology from Yale Divinity School, and a MA in Theological and Religious Studies from Georgetown University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.
Yale awarded him the Wolcott Calkins Prize, one of its top honors, “for excellence in clear and vigorous pulpit speaking”. He is the Patrick Healy Fellow for Theological and Religious Studies at Georgetown University, where is a PhD student.
He is currently a Senior Program Associate with the Vera Institute of Justice Unlocking Potential Initiative where he provides technical assistance to college-in-prison programs throughout the country. He joined the Vera Institute in 2020 as a Senior Federal Policy Associate, where he led Vera’s federal policy lobbying efforts on Capitol Hill, having worked with a broad bipartisan coalition that resulted in Pell restoration for all incarcerated students and non-incarcerated students with a felony drug conviction.
Before joining Vera, he was the Assistant Director of Program Management at Georgetown University, where he served as the Program Manager of the Georgetown Pivot Program – a first-of-its-kind program offering a certificate in business fundamentals and entrepreneurship to formerly incarcerated DC residents.
George is a nationally sought-after public speaker on such topics as the history and trajectory of mass incarceration, college-in-prison, reentry, and theological considerations related to the criminal legal system. In 2015, he testified in front of Congress on the bipartisan Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act, co-sponsored by Senators Durbin and Grassley. The provisions in that bill were the framework for the First Step Act of 2020, which released thousands of people from prison during Covid.
Today, Chochos is the Patrick Healy Fellow for Theological and Religious Studies at Georgetown University, a Senior Program Associate with the Vera Institute of Justice Unlocking Potential Initiative, a John Maxwell Leadership Team Member, and the Director of Prison Ministry at Emory Fellowship in Washington, D.C. He also serves on the Advisory Council for Tufts University Re-Sentencing Project.
Published Work: Turn on the TAP for Incarcerated New Yorkers | January 28, 2020
