Robert “Roman” Haferd
Roman Haferd (he/him) is a restorative justice practitioner, civil rights attorney, farmer, and student of healing. Roman is a veteran restorative justice facilitator, innovator, and trainer, having facilitated or overseen hundreds of restorative justice conferences in criminal and uncharged cases diverted from traditional prosecution, including serious violent offenses. In 2017 Roman was hired as the first Restorative Justice Coordinator for the Office of the Attorney General of the District of Columbia, where for seven years he helped build the nation’s largest in-house restorative justice program in Washington DC’s Justice Department. He and his team’s trailblazing work establishing evidence-based restorative justice in the nation’s capital has been featured by media outlets including NPR’s All Things Considered and Morning Edition. Roman now serves as an expert and facilitator to help jurisdictions and leaders implement precedent-setting restorative justice outcomes in highly-sensitive and novel cases. He also teaches Restorative Justice Theory & Practice as an adjunct professor at Georgetown Law School each January. In 2020, Roman became a founding partner of Roots to Sky Sanctuary, a 125-acre BIPOC-owned regenerative farm and community hub located at the headwaters of the Potomac River. Roots to Sky fosters cultural, spiritual, and psychological sovereignty for individuals, families and youth traditionally lacking access to rural spaces. The Sanctuary is a recipient of a Mellon Foundation “Humanities in Place” Award for its fellowship program “Re-Storying the Potomac,” and recently hosted a gathering of native and non-native land-based healing community leaders from around the country following the 2024 National Association for Community & Restorative Justice (NACRJ) Conference. Roman has a BA from Bucknell University, and a JD from Harvard Law School. He is a founding board member of the Psychedelic Bar Association, serving as the board steward of its Ethics Committee, and is a member of the Honeycomb Justice Collective. Roman is regularly invited to speak about restorative justice, drug policy ethics and community healing. He is originally from Akron, Ohio, and carries both African and European ancestry. He is an identical twin and the son of a strong single mother, with farming in his blood on both sides of his family tree.
