The international Victim Offender Mediation Association in St. Paul, Minn., promotes restorative justice. The 250-member association has members from all states.

Howard Zehr is one of the founders of the restorative justice movement. He teaches at Eastern Mennonite University, where he co-directs the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding. He speaks and consults extensively on the subject. Among his many publications on the subject is the best-selling The Little Book of Restorative Justice.

Ted Wachtel is founder and president of the International Institute for Restorative Practices in Bethlehem, Pa., which offers graduate degrees and training in applying restorative principles in schools, criminal justice, child welfare and workplaces. Read “In Pursuit of Paradigm: A Theory of Restorative Justice,” a paper delivered by Wachtel and researcher Paul McCold at an international criminology conference in […]

Mark Umbreit is founding director of the Center for Restorative Justice and Peacemaking at the University of Minnesota school of social work. He is also on the faculty of the Center for Spirituality and Healing at the university. Umbreit is familiar with evaluations of restorative justice.

Lorraine Stutzman Amstutz is director for the Mennonite Central Committee Office on Crime and Justice and co-author of The Little Book of Restorative Discipline for Schools.

Fumitaka Matsuoka is Robert Gordon Sproul Professor of Theology of Pacific School of Religion, Berkeley, Calif., where he is executive director of the Institute for Leadership Development and Study of Pacific and Asian North American Religion. He is an ordained minister in the Church of the Brethren. He co-edited Realizing the America of Our Hearts: Theological Voices of […]

Lawrence Sherman is Director of the Institute of Criminology of the University of Cambridge. His work is internationally recognized. He co-led a decade-long study of restorative justice in multiple settings.

Ed Gilbreath, who lives in the Chicago area, is editor of Today’s Christian magazine and editor at large for Christianity Today. He wrote Reconciliation Blues: A Black Evangelical’s Inside View of White Christianity and Gospel Trailblazer: An African-American Preacher’s Historic Journey Across Racial Lines.

Kay Pranis has worked in the field of restorative justice for almost two decades. She was the restorative justice planner for the Minnesota Department of Corrections for nine years. Pranis calls the spread of restorative justice a “quiet revolution.”