Dr. Topeka K. Sam is the Founder of The Ladies of Hope Ministries, Inc. (@TheLOHM) and founder and President of EPIC Financial PBLLC, TKS Ventures LLC and Faces & Voices Inc.

She serves on the board of directors for The Marshall Project, Operation Restoration, Pure Legacee and United Justice Coalition. She is a strategic advisor for RBIJ and HARP.

She is Co-founder and Visionary Officer of FRSH.

Since her release from federal prison on May 5, 2015, Topeka has served as a 2015 Beyond the Bars Fellow and a 2016 Justice-In-Education Scholar both from Columbia University, 2017 Soros Justice Advocacy Fellow, 2018 Unlocked Futures Inaugural Cohort Member, 2018 Opportunity Agenda Communications Institute Fellow, Director of #Dignity for Incarcerated Women Campaign and Senior Advisor for NYUJ.

The Formerly Incarcerated Speaker Series is a biweekly program on Alcatraz Island that lifts up and highlights the voices of people who have spent time inside of jails and prisons. The National Park Service believes in parks as platforms for dialogue, and Alcatraz Island, being one of the only NPS sites that interprets mass incarceration, works directly with people who have been affected in order to give them a platform to showcase their stories.

Speaking event starts at 1 PM in the Cellhouse Dining Hall.

For more information on the Formerly Incarcerated Speaker Series,or other community outreach initiatives (including ranger-led programs), please contact park ranger Oliver Goodman (oliver_goodman@nps.gov). If you are a community leader working with the formerly incarcerated community and you would like to bring a group to an upcoming program in the series, please email Oliver. If you have any accessibility needs such as ASL translation, please contact goga_accessibility@nps.gov at least 5 days in advance.

Seating is first come first serve. Your island ticket is sufficient for admission, reservations are not required. Seating may be limited.