Inspirational Speaker Coming To West Hartford's USJ This Week

WEST HARTFORD, CT — A prominent college in West Hartford is hosting an inspirational speaker whose journey to academia took the most non-traditional of paths.

It started in jail.

West Hartford's University of Saint Joseph will host Stanley Andrisse, Ph.D., for a public talk on resilience, leadership, and health equity on Wednesday, Feb. 18, at its campus at 1678 Asylum Ave. in West Hartford.

His talk, titled “Transforming Lives Through Resilience, Leadership, and Health Equity,” is scheduled from noon to 1 p.m. in the Crystal Room of Mercy Hall. Lunch will be served.

Andrisse, an endocrinologist and assistant professor at Howard University College of Medicine, is the executive director and founder of "From Prison Cells to Ph.D."

Originally from Ferguson-Florissant, Missouri, Andrisse was sentenced in his early 20s to 10 years in a maximum-security prison on drug trafficking charges.

After his release, he was accepted into the Ph.D. program at Saint Louis University. He is now an associate professor at Howard University.

In 2017, Andrisse founded From Prison Cells to Ph.D., an organization focused on advocacy, mentoring, and policy change for people with criminal convictions.

According to event organizers, his presentation will examine his personal journey from incarceration to academia and explore the intersection of chronic disease, incarceration, and health disparities in marginalized communities.

For more information, contact USJ Associate Professor Maria Anderson at 860-231-5443 or mariaanderson@usj.edu.

For more information on 'From Prison Cells to Phd' click on this link.