Growing up in Ferguson, Missouri, Stanley Andrisse began making poor decisions at a very young age. He started selling dope and was arrested for the first time at fourteen years old. By his early twenties, dope dealing had exponentially multiplied, and he found himself sitting in front of a judge facing twenty years to life on drug trafficking charges. The judge sentenced him to ten years in a maximum-security prison.

Upon release, and after several rejections, Stanley was accepted into a PhD program. He completed his PhD/MBA simultaneously and became an endocrinologist and impactful leader at Johns Hopkins Medicine, specializing in diabetes research.

Dr. Andrisse is Executive Director and Founder of From Prison Cells to PhD, board member on the Formerly Incarcerated College Graduates Network, founder of the Diversity Postdoctoral Alliance, member on several local and national committees aimed at community outreach, youth mentor, motivational speaker, and community activist. His book From Prison Cells to PhD: It is Never Too Late to Do Good recounts his inspiring story.

“I kind of thought there was justice in the criminal justice system and that there was care for people, like you matter to me within the system, and in that moment it hit me. There wasn't. And in fact, it's the opposite. In order for the system to work the way it does, it needs to de-humanize the people that it puts in these cages.”

www.fromprisoncellstophd.org

From Prison Cells to PhD book

Asst. Professor, Howard University

Photo: Wesley Law/STL Mag

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