Lauren Fardig-Diop comes to DJC after teaching high school English in Ypsilanti, Detroit, Ann Arbor (where she was raised) and NYC for 17 years.  She has been a school-based restorative justice practitioner since 2010, when she began working with United Playaz at Banana Kelly High School in the Bronx, NY. We considered, with youth leading the conversation, how to interrupt violence we were seeing on the streets in the South Bronx, that claimed the lives of our loved ones. Then, she served as the Restorative Justice Coordinator for the Bronx Academy of Letters, where she grew her practice into training educators, and young people on using circles and RJ/TJ practices to interrupt violence at school, at home and in the community.

Circle keeping is an Indigenous process rooted in dignity, respect, compassion and humanity. She has been honored to hold space in hundreds of circles and was deeply honored to have been one of the trainers for our Community Circlekeeper training from 2023-24.  She believes that we have the tools we need for our collective liberation, and we need to listen to our young people, our returning citizens, and our elders when crafting policy and programming.  She is a mama, a community mama, a poet and a lifelong student.

Her work has been featured in Humans of Restorative Justice, The Atlantic, The New York Times and on the PBS News Hour.  She is also the 2022 LaFontaine Teacher of the Year for Washtenaw County, a 2022 Writer of Ypsilanti and a 2022-25 Vocal Justice Teaching Fellow. 

She is honored to join the Detroit Justice Center as the Program Manager for the Metro Detroit Restorative Justice Network.