Alissa Ackerman, PhD

California State University, Fullerton/Ampersands Restorative Justice

Dr. Alissa R. Ackerman is the co-founder and owner of Ampersands Restorative Justice. She is a "pracademic”and "survivor scholar" in that she incorporates her academic training, practitioner, and personal experiences with sexual violence in her work. She holds a PhD in Criminal Justice from the City University of New York. Alissa has dedicated her career to understanding everything she can about sexual offending, the impacts of sexual victimization, and restorative options for those impacted by sexual harm. After participating in vicarious restorative justice as a survivor that changed her life, she began building and facilitating processes for others who sought restorative options as part of their own healing.

She writes extensively on topics related to sexual violence in blogs and magazine articles and has published over 35 peer-reviewed journal articles. She has authored or edited six books and recently served as co-editor on a special edition of the Journal of Sexual Abuse in 2018. She co-authored Healing from Sexual Violence: The Case for Vicarious Restorative Justice, with Dr. Jill Levenson in 2019 and her most recent co-edited volume, Survivor Criminology: A Radical Act of Hope, was released in 2022. Alissa is an internationally sought-after speaker and trainer, having given over seventy-five national and international talks, including a TEDx Talk in 2018.