Teresa Y. Hodge, President and co-founder of Mission: Launch, Inc., a Justice Innovation Lab championing reentry solutions for individuals with criminal records. Mission: Launch hosted the first reentry-focused hackathon in the Country. The organization has driven innovative solutions, providing data-driven support to businesses that aim to better understand and engage talent and consumers with criminal records. Hodge co-founded Just Decisions, a jobs portal, and R3 Score Technologies alongside her daughter, Laurin (Hodge) Leonard. R3 Score offers a modernized approach to evaluating individuals with criminal histories for employment, housing, banking, and education opportunities. Her mission is to build interventions that provide an onramp for successfully reintegrating people with criminal records. Hodge's journey from incarceration to influential entrepreneurship was recognized in the book Alien Thinking. Her leadership extends to being the Chairwoman of Aventiv Technologies' America's #1 prison communications company. She has earned a spot in Forbes' "50 over 50 Women" for her contributions to criminal justice reform. She was a Visiting Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, where she co-authored significant research. Her impactful speeches, including a TEDx talk - "We’ve Made Coming Home Too Hard," highlight the challenges of returning to society after incarceration has significantly contributed to the discourse on criminal justice reform.
