Founding Executive Director

Dr Heiner

(Photo by Kevin Sullivan, Orange County Register)

Brady Heiner, Ph.D.
(657) 278-2950
bheiner@fullerton.edu

DR. BRADY HEINER

Dr. Heiner is the Founder and former Executive Director (2016-2022) of Project Rebound at Cal State Fullerton. Dr. Heiner was also the Founding Executive Director and Executive Committee Chair of the CSU Project Rebound Consortium (2019-2023), which provided leadership and oversight for the statewide expansion of Project Rebound programs across eighteen CSU campuses.

Dr. Heiner and Romarilyn Ralston, the founding Program Director, grew Cal State Fullerton's program from one student to over 100, earning the program recognition as a national model from both chambers of the California Legislature and as 2021 California Nonprofit of the Year for the 65th Assembly district. Together, they launched the transformative John Irwin Memorial House, which provides housing and holistic support for formerly incarcerated students, and they played key roles in advancing legislation like the Ban the Box in Higher Ed Act (SB 118, Skinner, 2020) and the Incarcerated Students Bill of Rights (SB 416, Hueso, 2021).

During CSU Fullerton’s term as lead campus for the systemwide expansion of Project Rebound (2019-2023), Project Rebound grew from nine CSU campus programs, operating with a $700,000 annual budget and twelve full-time equivalent staff serving 300 students, to eighteen campus programs, operating with a $12,000,000 annual budget and 41 full-time equivalent staff serving over 1,000 students. In four years, Project Rebound programs conferred over 600 bachelor’s and master’s degrees to formerly incarcerated graduates, quadrupled the number of students attending graduate programs, and increased the number of annual graduates from 61 graduates to 247 graduates.

AWARDS & DEGREES

Dr. Heiner is the recipient of the Cal State Fullerton University Leadership Award, the College of Humanities & Social Sciences Outstanding Untenured Faculty Award, and the Dean's Award for Faculty Scholarly Achievement. He is the recipient of nine Certificates of Recognition from the California State Assembly, California State Senate, and United States Congress. He was selected by the Orange County Register as one of the "Most Influential People in Orange County." Heiner holds a B.A. (with honors) in Modern Culture & Media from Brown University, M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Philosophy from the State University of New York, and is an Associate Professor of Philosophy and Affiliated Faculty of African American Studies at Cal State Fullerton.

Public Advocacy & Presentations

Brady Heiner CV

Creating Transformative Kinship, California State University Project Rebound Consortium Annual Report, 2023, California State University Legislative Reports.

Expert Testimony to California State Assembly: "Building Postsecondary Educational Pathways for Juvenile Justice System-Involved Youths." Joint Informational Hearing of the Assembly Budget Subcommittees on Education Finance and Public Safety, April 17, 2023. [Link is to video recording of committee. Heiner's testimony begins at 02:53:20]

Webinar: “Voting Rights for Incarcerated Californians.” California Humanities panel, California on the Ballot, July 2022.

Podcast: “On Mass Incarceration and the Work of Project Rebound.” The Ethicist’s Corner Podcast. Kegley Institute of Ethics, California State University, Bakersfield. August 2020.

Webinar: “Humanities Beyond Bars: Reimagining Public Safety.” Kegley Institute of Ethics panel, California State University, Bakersfield, November 2020.

Expert Testimony to California State Assembly: "Project Rebound: Advancing Equity and Reducing Recidivism through the California State University." California State Assembly Budget Subcommittee on Public Safety, February 28, 2022. [Link is to video recording of committee. Heiner's testimony begins at 01:20:25]

Expert Testimony to California State Senate: "Ban the Box in Higher Education." California State Senate Education Committee, January 15, 2020. [Link is to video recording of committee. Heiner's testimony begins at 02:01:40]

Expert Testimony to California State Senate: "Increasing Equity and Reducing Recidivism Through Higher Education." California State Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Subcommittee on Education, April 4, 2019. [Link is to video recording of committee. Heiner's testimony begins at 01:31:20]

Selected Academic Publications

Brady Heiner, "Abolition University: Mobilizing Black Feminist Philosophy to Transform Institutions of Higher Education into 'Vehicles of Decarceration' that Affirm the Lives of First-Generation Students," The American Philosophical Association Studies on Feminism and Philosophy 20.3 (2021): 31-38.

Brady Heiner, “Shackling Pregnant Women: U.S. Prisons, Anti-Blackness, and the Unfinished Project of American Abolition.” philoSOPHIA: A Journal of Transcontinental Feminism 12.1–2: 1–35.

Brady Heiner and Sarah Tyson, "Feminism and the Carceral State: Gender-Responsive Justice, Community Accountability, and the Epistemology of Antiviolence," Feminist Philosophy Quarterly 3.1 (2017): 1–36.

Brady Heiner, "The Procedural Entrapment of Mass Incarceration: Prosecution, Race, and the Unfinished Project of American Abolition," Philosophy & Social Criticism 42.6 (2016): 594–631.

Conference: "Rethinking Mass Incarceration: Gender, Race, and the Prison Industrial Complex," 44th Annual CSUF Philosophy Symposium, April 10-11, 2014.