Dr. Anita Wadhwa is a Harvard Graduate School of Education trained educational sociologist with overtwo decades of experience. A native Houstonian, Wadhwa is a seasoned teacher, trainer, researcher, and writer dedicated to restorative justice.

Wadhwa began her along-distinguished career as a Lecturer/Teaching Assistant at Harvard University, where she instructed and assisted in various courses at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, including "The Intersection of Race and Punishment in Schools," "Introduction to Qualitative Research," "Reading, Writing and Content Learning in Middle and Secondary Schools," and "Conducting Qualitative Social Science Research." She also had the unique opportunity to teach the latter course inside a prisonat MCI-Norfolk.

Founder and CEO of Anita Wadhwa Consulting, a firm that conducts training sessions on implicit bias, youth leadership development, trauma-sensitive pedagogy, microaggressions, and intergenerational restorative justice locally and internationally, Wadhwa hascrafted a Youth Apprenticeship Model of restorative justice that promotes youth leadership, training young people to facilitate restorative circles and totrain other young people.

By allowing students to build a community via getting to know each other and becoming more comfortable expressing themselves, Youth Apprenticeship Model (YAM) empowers youngsters to transform themselves, their relationships, and the school system. Her programwas featured on National Public Radio’s Morning Edition, Huffington Post, andTexas Criminal Justice Coalition (not exclusively).

One of the top experts on restorative justice models in Texas - the nation’s second largest state -Wadhwa is currently an English Teacher in Mayde Creek High School in Houston. Before joining Mayde Creek, Wadhwa was Dean of Students / Restorative Justice Coordinator at YES Prep Northbrook High, and later Assistant Principal at Cristo Rey Jesuit High School.  

Previously, she was a Teacher/Restorative Justice Coordinator at Spring Branch Independent School District (ISD), where she was responsible for teaching middle school English inthe Spring Branch Disciplinary Alternative Education Program and served as the Restorative Justice Coordinator and In-School Suspension (ISS) teacher at the Academy of Choice.

Recipient of HGSE’s Alumni Achievement Award through the Alumni of Color Conference, she is also author of several publications on Restorative Justice; her book, Restorative Justice in Urban Schools: Disrupting the School to Prison Pipeline, analyzes the school to prison pipeline in a historical context, and explores how restorative justice – coupled with critical pedagogy focused on the political, social, and economic structures that contribute to students’ schooling experiences – transform relationships and create space for increased student engagement and socio-political change.

With in-depth experience in partnering with young people most impacted by structural injustice aschange-makers in all aspects of restorative practices including community building, healing, and the transformation of institutions, Wadhwa brings to the United Nations Colonization Memorial Steering Committee an innovative restorative process on how we can heal racial wounds based on an understanding of victims' needs.

She holds a Bachelor of Arts in English from University of Houston, Master of Fine Arts and Creative Writing from Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, New York, and Doctor of Education, Culture, Communities and Education from Harvard University, Graduate School of Education.