Fall Updates from FEPPS
As the days get shorter, we have been busy at FEPPS! We are delighted to share some exciting updates:
Introducing our new AA and BA Cohorts
Class of 2025 AA Graduation
Community Connections 2025
Introducing our New Staff: Tonya Wilson and Anna Dellit
Fall Quarter Courses and Extracurriculars
Mark your Calendar: Giving Tuesday is December 2
Introducing our AA and BA Cohorts!
This summer was very busy at FEPPS! We completed our onboarding process for a new cohort of 45 students in our Associates of Arts degree pathway AND transferred all of our current students to our new accreditation partner, Olympic College. We are so grateful for all the time and effort of our amazing FEPPS team and our partners at Olympic College who have made this as smooth and seamless as possible!
At the same time, the application process for the BA of Liberal Studies through the University of Puget Sound was in full swing. As you can imagine, this was a challenging process from inside a prison. Applicants wrote their personal statements and reached out to former instructors for letters of recommendation. In the end, the University of Puget Sound admitted 23 students. On September 25, UPS and FEPPS hosted a Matriculation ceremony to welcome this new cohort of scholars!
Image: The FEPPS BA cohort at their UPS matriculation ceremony (not all scholars pictured).
It was a huge lift to make all of this happen, and thanks to our FEPPS community, we were able to pull it off. We are beyond proud of how we have built back our program and liberatory education offerings in the years since the COVID-19 shutdowns.
Class of 2025 AA Graduation!
Image: A group of AA graduates pose in their regalia
On September 13, 2025, we had our first 'normal' AA graduation since 2019! In total, 16 graduates completed their AA-DTA degrees. On the day before the ceremony, FEPPS graduates gathered to eat lunch, play games, and decorate their graduation caps.
Image: Students’ decorated graduation caps and goodie baskets
The graduation ceremony was filled with inspiration, laughter, and hopefulness for the future. It featured speeches by Nina, the Valedictorian, as well as Teri and Oso, the co-Salutatorians of the class of 2025. FEPPS was excited to welcome back co-founder, Tonya Wilson, for the keynote address. She shared her journey and successes during reintegration equipped with the rigorous education she had fought for and received through FEPPS during her incarceration. Her presence served as an example of what is possible for the future generations of FEPPS students.
FEPPS staff Tatiana Baker reflected on the success of the celebration, "In part, it was due to the major push and resiliency of the FEPPS Advisory Council, who wanted the graduates to feel celebrated and recognized for their perseverance through the pandemic... The ambiance of the graduation was one of accomplishment and hope."
Images of the 2025 AA Graduation ceremony
Upon their commencement, graduates had plenty of time to mingle and congratulate one another on their amazing accomplishment. Velvety blue robes dotted the crowd, moving between the gym and gym yard where games and tables were set up for visiting. Laughter and joy were abundant as everyone enjoyed the energy of the day. It was truly one to remember.
Community Connections 2025
On October 21–22, the third annual Community Connections Event at the Washington Corrections Center for Women brought together 180 incarcerated participants and more than 45 community organizations for two days of meaningful engagement. The event created a vital space for people incarcerated at WCCW to explore educational opportunities, employment resources, family and child support services, mental health programs, legal advocacy, reentry planning, and other community-based supports available to them upon release.
Images: Tables ff some of the community organizations present at Community Connections, 2025
In the weeks leading up to the event, the Community Connections Committee—comprised of FEPPS staff and incarcerated FEPPS students—organized Zoom meetings with participating organizations. These virtual sessions offered an important opportunity for the incarcerated organizers to ask questions, share perspectives, and begin building relationships before meeting partners in person.
Reflecting on the experience, Community Connections Planning committee member Bonnie shared, “To see both the organization members as well as the individuals housed in WCCW move from booth to booth was worth every minute of work to make Community Connections happen. The most impactful moment was seeing how many previously incarcerated individuals were in attendance—some of them I’ve done a lot of time with.”
During the event itself, organizations from across the region shared information, answered questions, and offered pathways to support both during incarceration and after release. The strong turnout and wide range of participating partners underscore the community’s commitment to ensuring that individuals at WCCW have access to the tools, knowledge, and relationships that empower successful transitions and long-term stability through their reentry journeys.
We are deeply grateful for the wide support that makes this event possible each year. Successful reintegration after incarceration takes an entire community, and the generosity, partnership, and presence of so many organizations reflect the shared belief that every person deserves the resources and relationships needed to thrive.
This year’s event highlighted the power of collaboration and reaffirmed the importance of connecting incarcerated individuals with supportive networks that foster hope, dignity, and opportunity.
Introducing our New FEPPS Staff
We are delighted to announce that we have brought on two amazing new members to our FEPPS staff team!
Tonya Wilson
Image: Tonya Wilson, the new FEPPS Pathways Program Manager, speaks at graduation
Tonya Wilson joins FEPPS as the Pathways Program Manager. She brings deep experience, insight, and compassion to her work supporting people returning from incarceration. As a Black woman who spent 17 years incarcerated, she understands the barriers women and gender-expansive people face when reentering their communities—and the transformational power of education, community, and dignity-centered support. While incarcerated at WCCW, Tonya co-founded the Women’s Village, a peer-led organizing effort focused on healing, safety, and collective leadership that reduced violent infractions by 50% and helped lay the foundation for FEPPS. She also earned her AA degree through FEPPS, an experience that shaped her commitment to education and her desire to support others on their reentry journeys. Since her release, Tonya has continued to advance this work by facilitating workshops, serving on boards including FEPPS and Tacoma SEED, contributing to statewide conversations on legal system reform, and working in public service as a legislative aide to State Senator Yasmine Trudeau. Now returning to FEPPS as a co-founder and alum, Tonya brings her leadership full circle. Guided by her dedication to communication, connection, and restorative approaches—including her work engaging and reimagining NonViolent Communication—she is passionate about helping students feel seen, supported, and equipped as they transition home, building pathways that honor their resilience, brilliance, and long-term success.
Anna Dellit
Anna Dellit recently graduated from Northwestern University where she majored in Black Studies and Legal Studies with a minor in Asian American Studies. During her four years as an undergraduate, she worked closely with the Northwestern Prison Education Program and hopes to continue to support and learn alongside system-impacted students in her role as the program assistant for FEPPS. Anna has already jumped right in, helping out with student research at study halls and cataloging the new and improved FEPPS library!
Fall Quarter Courses & Extracurriculars
This quarter, we were able to offer a range of exciting classes for our new AA cohort and seasoned students:
Math Prep I: College Math Preparation – James Aisenberg: Prepares students for success in college-level math.
College 110 – Amon Greene: Supports students in building skills for academic and career success, including time management, study skills, and academic planning.
English Prep: College English Preparation (2 sections) – Lucien Spect, Blaine Hunt: Prepares students for success in college-level English
HUMAN 236: Writers/Writing as Activism – Sultana Shabazz: Explores the role of writers and writing as a form of activism, focusing on how literature can be used for social change.
SOC 135: The Family – Kayleen Oka: examines intimate relationships, including mate selection, gender roles, sexuality, and parenthood.
ANTH& 207: Linguistic Anthropology – Ashley Moser: Introduces the methods and theories of linguistic anthropology, including the evolution of language and the relationship between language and culture.
Our BA cohort kicked off their journey together with the following courses:
LBST 310: The Liberal Arts and the Construction of Knowledge – Alisa Kessel: Introduces students to liberal arts education and interdisciplinary inquiry, highlighting differences and overlaps in epistemological frameworks across various disciplines.
CONN 210: Law, Gender, and Justice in South Asia – Trishna Senapaty: Explores the relationship between law, gender, and justice through ethnographies and examines legal impacts on familial life, social movements, and gendered activism in South Asia and its diasporas, alongside key dialogues in feminism.
Mark your Calendar: Giving Tuesday is December 2
Giving Tuesday is an important campaign to support FEPPS's work at the Washington Corrections Center for Women. As nonprofits come under threat and large scale funding becomes more limited, it is more important than ever for us to have a wide base of financial support directly from our community. Your donation makes a direct impact on the lives of our students and the entire community at WCCW.
Early giving is open. Please consider donating and/or sharing about our work with your friends, family, and community! Contribute today!