Zelda Roland

Dr. Zelda Roland serves as the Director of the University of New Haven's Prison Education Program and is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Communication, Film, and Media Studies Department within the College of Arts and Sciences. She is also an affiliated faculty member of the Arthur Liman Center for Public Interest Law at Yale Law School and a Lecturer in Yale's Education Studies Program.

As a Yale alumna (B.A. '08, Ph.D. '16), Dr. Roland conceived and created the Yale Prison Education Initiative (YPEI) at Dwight Hall after working with Wesleyan University's Center for Prison Education. Since founding YPEI in 2016, she has overseen UNH's college-in-prison programming and coordinated educational partnerships with the Connecticut Department of Corrections.

Her research focuses on expanding educational access for incarcerated populations, criminal justice reform, and communication studies within correctional settings. She manages relationships with national prison education programs and criminal justice organizations while leading faculty and staff committed to this mission.

Dr. Roland secured a $1.5 million grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to create a degree-granting program for incarcerated students in Connecticut. Her program has facilitated graduation ceremonies where incarcerated students earned Yale credits and University of New Haven degrees.

• Featured in CT Insider discussing 'Unconventional college students' who earned degrees while incarcerated
• Appeared on MSNBC discussing the program's mission and first graduation ceremony
• Interviewed in New Haven Register where the program was described as 'transformative'
• Featured in 'The Back Room with Andy Ostroy' podcast discussing program origins and success