Advocate for Incarcerated Women to Receive Honorary Doctorate from CSUN

It took six visits to prison before Susan Burton found the support she needed to break the incarceration cycle. Determined to help other women like herself, she founded A New Way of Life Reentry Project in South Los Angeles in the late 1990s.

On Monday, May 20, Burton will receive an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from California State University, Northridge in recognition of all she has done to transform the lives of incarcerated women and at-risk youth, and for her efforts to share what she has learned with the world, including CSUN students.

“Susan Burton has overcome tremendous difficulties to achieve extraordinary accomplishments in the last two decades as a nationally renowned activist and community organizer,” said CSUN President Dianneeducational opportunities I lost. For me, this is another victory in my healing process. Thank you, CSUN, for this incredible honor.”

Burton was born in the public housing projects of East Los Angeles and grew up in South Los Angeles. She was sexually abused as a child and, at age 14, was gang raped, resulting in the birth of her daughter. But it was the death, years later, of her 5-year-old son, run over by an off-duty Los Angeles police officer, that plunged her into deep depression and substance abuse that led her to prison.

She was incarcerated, bouncing in and out of prison six times. Each time she was released, she had no identification, her worldly possessions were in a box and there was no support system to ensure