Kathy Boudin serves as Director of The Criminal Justice Initiative: Supporting Children, Families and Communities located at Columbia University School of Social Work and is an adjunct professor at both Columbia University School of Social Work and New York University School of Social Work focusing on issues related to incarceration and reentry. While incarcerated for 22 years, Kathy was a teacher and counselor and developed programs collaboratively with other women in areas including mother-child relationships across the separation of prison, the HIV/AIDS epidemic, basic literacy, higher education, and longtermers. She has published articles in numerous journals including The Harvard Educational Review, Women and Therapy, American Correctional Association, and Columbia Journal of Gender and Law. She has carried out research in three areas: the role of higher education in a maximum security prison for women; issues faced by adolescents with incarcerated mothers; and developmental processes of people in prison serving long sentences for violent crimes and their recidivism rates, examining parole and sentencing policy. Her work emphasizes participation and empowerment of those being served.
Since her release from prison in 2003, Kathy has received her doctoral degree from Columbia University Teachers College with a focus on adolescents with incarcerated mothers. She has worked at the Center for Comprehensive Care at St. Lukes-Roosevelt Hospital and founded the Coming Home Program, providing health care for people returning from prisons or jail. As the director of the Criminal Justice Initiative, Kathy is engaged in the following projects: bringing a focus at Columbia University on incarceration and related issues in curriculum and professional training, policy and research; coordinating the Teen College Dreams Program that works with teens with an incarcerated parents to support their college aspirations; and working with longtermers both in parole reform and in a restorative justice project called Coming To Terms with people inside prison. Kathy has served as consultant to the Osborne Association, Vermont Corrections, the Women's Prison Association, and Family Justice.