Joyce McMillan

Joyce McMillan is a thought leader, advocate, activist, community organizer, and educator. Her mission is to remove systemic barriers in communities of color by bringing awareness to the racial disparities in systems where people of color are disproportionately affected.  

Joyce believes the conversation about systemic oppression must happen on all levels consistently before meaningful change can occur. She completed a restorative certificate program at The New School and believes change will not happen independently of healing. Joyce is an Advisory Committee member at The Center for New York City Affairs (CNYCA) at The New School, where she also has a visiting fellowship. As a visiting fellow, she explores ways to strengthen the parent voice in child welfare and has led a series of public events where panelists discussed not just the problems but suggested solutions. Joyce is a former fellow with Law4Black Lives where she explored what it means to divest in systems while investing in communities, as well as with The National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls where she reimagined communities without system harm. 

Joyce is the founder of the Parent Legislative Action Network (PLAN), a coalition that won monumental change to New York’s State Central Registry. Joyce has testified for City Council and has lectured or been a part of panel discussions at Columbia University, NYU, Hunter College, Montclair University, CUNY Law School, Harvard University, Cornell University, Harlem Hospital, New York City Affairs at the New School, and many other institutions. Additionally, she has also appeared in various media interviews with Al Jeezera, NY Times, NPR, ABC Channel 7, Politico, ICPH (Institute for Children, Poverty & Homelessness), and documentaries. Her ultimate goal is to abolish systems of harm while creating concrete community resources. Joyce is also the founder and executive director of JMACforFamilies and also the founder of PLAN.