Dolfinette Martin on Clubhouse

Bio

Freedom Fighter|Activist|Advocate|Consultant

Daily mission: End incarceration of women and girls

Housing Director - HHNOLA, a transitional co-living space for formerly incarcerated women.


Dolfinette Martin, Housing Director at Operation Restoration, is a strong community leader. She serves on the Formerly Incarcerated Transitional Clinic Advisory Board, a clinic created for formerly incarcerated people, and she is a panelist on the Criminal Background Check Review Panel for the Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO). Dolfinette was appointed to New Orleans’ first female mayor Latoya Cantrell’s transition team and in 2019 was appointed to the Audubon Zoo Advisory Board of Commissions. In 2018 she was appointed to Essence Festival’s first ever all-female criminal justice reform panel. She was a founding member and former president of the New Orleans chapter of the National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls. Dolfinette earned a college degree in 2015 after her release from prison in 2012. She sets a powerful example for her children, grandchildren and her community. She is frequently asked to contribute her knowledge, expertise, and wisdom on panels and media. She is a recipient of the John Thompson Leadership for Change Award and The Graduates’ Freedom Fighter Award. Dolfinette is an equal partner in Tulane University’s (Per)Sister exhibition, an exhibition that highlights the stories of 30 formerly and currently incarcerated women and girls. Dolfinette helped create the first Women’s Gathering Fellowship for women of color with the Center for Community Change and was one of the first ten cohorts. She also contributed her expertise to help create The Power Coalitions SheLeads Fellowship which also focuses on women of color doing on-the-ground organizing. Based on her legislative advocacy Governor John Bel Edwards appointed her to sit on the Louisiana Women’s Incarceration Task Force in 2018.