Laron Rogers is a founding member of Voices From Within and a credible messenger whose advocacy against gun violence began while he was serving a 25-years-to-life sentence at Sing Sing Correctional Facility. Inside, he and a small group of men helped create the original Voices From Within film, sharing their own stories of harm, loss, and accountability to reach young people before they pick up a gun.

Laron entered prison as a teenager with a sixth-grade education and returned home to East Harlem with a master’s degree in Professional Studies from New York Theological Seminary. Today, he works as a Case Manager in the Fortune Society’s Supervised Release program and is a Beyond the Bars Fellow at Columbia University’s Center for Justice, using his lived experience and education to support people coming home and to steer neighborhood teens away from violence.