Ph.D, Yale University
B.A., Yale University
Dr. S. Zelda Roland, Ph.D., serves as the Director of the University of New Haven’s Prison Education Program, overseeing the University's college-in-prison programming and partnership with the Yale Prison Education Initiative at Dwight Hall, where she has served as Founding Director since 2016.
A Yale alumna (B.A. '08, Ph.D. '16), Dr. Roland conceived of and created YPEI after first working with students enrolled in Wesleyan University’s Center for Prison Education at Cheshire Correctional Institution. She coordinates YPEI and UNH's educational partnerships with the Connecticut Department of Corrections and its facilities, relationships with other national and statewide prison education programs and criminal justice organizations, and a passionate and broad assembly of faculty, staff, and students on both campuses who believe in the promise and power of higher education access for incarcerated students.
She is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of New Haven, an affiliated faculty of the Arthur Liman Center for Public Interest Law at Yale Law School, and a Lecturer in Yale’s Education Studies Program.
In the Media
Zelda Roland, director of the Prison Education Program, comments on the second graduation of incarcerated students from a prison education program offered through a partnership between Yale University and the University of New Haven.
In the Media
Zelda Roland, director of the Prison Education Program, discusses the origins and success of the University of New Haven’s Prison Education Program.
In the Media
Zelda Roland, director of the Prison Education Program, and Marcus Harvin ’22 discuss the cohort's mission and first graduation ceremony at the MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution, where Interim President Sheahon Zenger conferred degrees in July.
In the Media
Patrick Gourley, associate professor of economics and business analytics; Michael Rossi, associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences; and Zelda Roland, Prison Project Director, commented on the success of the University of New Haven’s and Yale University’s Prison Education program and its impact on incarcerated students and the professors who are teaching in the program.
University News
An award from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation will fund a collaboration with the Yale Prison Education Initiative to create a degree-granting program for incarcerated students in Connecticut.