Tiffani D. Hurst is a third-year student in the Drexel University Ph.D. program studying Educational Leadership and Policy. Originally from Springfield, Massachusetts, Tiffani spent 25 years as a criminal defense attorney during which she became convinced that cultural competency in education was key to interrupting the school to prison nexus and the disproportionality therein of students of color and students with disabilities. While researching this topic, she became aware of a discrete group of individuals who were actually innocent of the crimes for which they were convicted and had had their education interrupted by their wrongful conviction and imprisonment. Upon their exoneration, they were unable to obtain employment to support themselves. Tiffani is now researching whether educational opportunities should be incorporated into wrongful conviction compensation statutes, and whether wrongful conviction compensation statutes with educational opportunities should be enacted in the 12 states that do not have wrongful conviction statutes.  In addition to her B.A. from Wellesley College in Political Science and Black Studies and J.D. from The University of Chicago Law School, Tiffani also has an M.Ed. in Psychology from Springfield College and a M.S. in Special Education from Drexel University.