Kim Grose Moore '82

Kim Grose Moore's ‘82 career path led her to the critical work she is currently doing, which she shared with us during the Summer of 2020.

"I currently serve as the Executive Director of the GRIP Training Institute, a restorative justice organization serving incarcerated people in five California state prisons.

GRIP (Guiding Rage into Power) is an in-depth transformative healing program that offers over the course of one year a profound experience for students to learn to stop their violence, repair the harm they have caused in the world, understand and heal the trauma of their own lives, and take steps to be of service to others. In the 8 years since the program began, more than 288 graduates (most with life sentences) have been released on parole and only one has returned to prison -- a success rate of 99.7%.

I am humbled and grateful, frankly, to work each day with extraordinary people whose lives have been impacted by the (in-)justice system. Working with some of the people that our society most marginalizes and vilifies reminds me of the true human potential for redemption and forgiveness -- for those who have committed grave harm to others, for ourselves, and for our society that has perpetrated systematic violence since the inception of this country. I wouldn't be doing this work if I hadn't grown up with the values, teachings, and community of MCS.

After MCS, I went on a high-achieving academic path. I have a BA degree from Stanford University and a Master’s degree in social anthropology from Oxford University, where I was a Rhodes Scholar. While in some ways I reveled in the opportunities and challenges that these institutions offered me, as early as 10th grade I remember beginning to have a feeling of disconnect and alienation, and spent many years trying to find a way back to the values and community that I experienced in my 9 years at MCS.

After returning from Oxford to the Bay Area in 1992, I spent the next 20 years working in various capacities to make the San Francisco Bay Area a more just and equitable community. I was the Co-Founder/Co-Director of Partners in School Innovation, whose mission is to transform teaching and learning in the lowest-performing public schools so that every student, regardless of background, thrives. From 2000-2008, I was a faith-based, grassroots community organizer and then the Executive Director of the San Francisco Organizing Project. Then, as the Regional Lead Consultant for the PICO National Network (now called Faith In Action), I provided strategic organizational consulting to grassroots community efforts throughout the Bay Area and state. I organized with community leaders on campaigns for affordable housing, healthcare, immigration, violence prevention and criminal justice reform.

My daughter, Magdalena, joined our family in 2008, and these last 12 years have been the most joyful (and challenging) of all! While still working part-time in community organizing, and parenting, I also began deeper spiritual study, and trained in earnest as a Buddhist chaplain. I was endorsed in 2015 by the Insight Meditation Center, and began to offer spiritual care and mindfulness teaching in justice movement communities, the Latino immigrant community, and the local jail and state prison. This eventually led me to GRIP.

MCS instilled in me a deep dedication to social and racial justice that has carried through my life to this day. Being part of the Beloved Community that is MCS has given me the experience of what is possible - it isn't just a pipedream, it is doable. While fighting for social change can be really hard, stressful, and at times demoralizing, I also learned from my time at MCS, that a good justice warrior also sings, breaks bread together, and at the root of everything: loves all beings."

Kim also submitted a "What MCS Means to Me" video for our recent "Stand with MCS" Campaign.