Dr. Kerry Spooner is the founder of Sound Justice Initiative, a non-profit organization that provides post-secondary education services to justice-involved people, including teaching college-oriented liberal arts courses in Suffolk County jails. At SJI, Spooner works to equip people with the soft skills required to improve individual and family economic and social upward mobility.
She has 20 years of experience teaching in higher education. Previously, Spooner worked for Suffolk County Department of Labor, Licensing & Consumer Affairs in the Suffolk Works Employment Program where she worked to decrease unemployment.
She says she’s running because “we need a town board that is accountable to ALL of Brookhaven,” she said “too many people are left out of and discouraged from participating in town board discussions and its decision-making process. We need those communities traditionally excluded and everyday working people who struggle financially to support themselves and their families at the table.” Spooner continued, “and we need effective economic public policy that restores and sustains our environment here in Brookhaven.”
Kerry Spooner earned her bachelor’s degree from University of Massachusetts in Political Science and Philosophy during which she enrolled in graduate courses in Economics and Social Development of Regions. After, Spooner earned her master's degree at New York University before receiving her Ph.D. at Stony Brook University in English.
Spooner moved to Brookhaven 20 years ago to attend graduate school, but its people, nature preserves, beaches, farms, educational organizations, recreational activities and its vibrant communities are why she stayed and where she and her wife, Anne, chose to raise their son.