Syrita Steib is the founder, president, and CEO of Operation Restoration, a New Orleans-based nonprofit providing transitional housing, job training, fiscal sponsorship, and legal advocacy to formerly incarcerated women– a situation which has personally impacted her. In 2000, as a teenager serving in the U.S. Navy, she was sentenced to 120 months in federal prison and was released in 2009 after serving 110 months. Syrita wrote and advocated for the successful passage of Louisiana Act 276, which prohibits public post-secondary institutions from asking questions related to criminal history for admissions purposes. Continuing her passion for improving the lives of formerly incarcerated women, she co-wrote Louisiana’s Dignity for Incarcerated Women Act to supply sanitary pads and other hygiene products for incarcerated women and create more privacy from male prison staff. In 2021, Syrita received a full presidential pardon. In 2022, Syrita was a candidate for the U.S. Senate in Louisiana, coming in fourth overall. She has served as a committee co-chair for a New Orleans mayoral transition team, board member for Dillard University’s Center for Racial Justice, and vice chair of the Louisiana Task Force on Women’s Incarceration. She was named a 2022 Top 50 Women Leaders of Louisiana, a 2021 Culture of Health Fellow with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and a 2020 Rubinger Fellow with Local Initiatives Support Corporation. Syrita is a Fellow of the Civil Society Fellowship and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.