Caitlin Dunklee

Campaign Strategist

Caitlin is a Campaign Strategist at The Clean Slate Initiative, working directly with state campaign partners to pass and implement Clean Slate policies.

Caitlin has organized and co-led movements against the criminalization of BIPOC communities for 19 years. Their work in New York, Texas, and California includes community organizing, coalition building, and leadership development. 

In 2004, Caitlin volunteered at an Ecuadorian women’s prison during a political uprising. Caitlin supported the protests and incarcerated women, and has been contributing to justice system transformation since. Caitlin led New York’s Drop the Rock Campaign, winning significant reform to the notorious Rockefeller Drug Laws. Caitlin co-founded Texas Advocates for Justice, a thriving Southern grassroots organization (now based at Grassroots Leadership) led by directly impacted individuals and families. Caitlin served as the Director of Organizing for the Transformative In-Prison Workgroup (TPW), where they co-led a statewide membership organization composed of 85 diverse community-based organizations with a shared vision of decarceration through healing. Caitlin is a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Culture of Health Leader, and a Health Equity Advisor for Shift Health Accelerator, which works to move public health dollars into community control. 

Caitlin received their bachelor’s degree from Hunter College in New York City, and their graduate degree from the LBJ School of Public Affairs at UT Austin. Caitlin believes in the inherent dignity of all people, the critical importance of leadership from communities most affected by racism and incarceration, and the transformative possibilities that healing collective trauma can generate.