Teresa Hodge
President at Mission: Launch, Inc.
Teresa’s passion for helping individuals with criminal histories is birthed out of her own lived experience with mass incarceration. After completing a 70-month federal prison sentence she co-founded Mission: Launch, Inc., with her daughter Laurin Leonard (Hodge). Mission: Launch focuses on inclusive entrepreneurship and unlocking capital for entrepreneurs with criminal histories. Teresa Hodge is the President & CEO and Co-Founder of R3 Score Technologies (R3 Score), a tech solution tailored for the 1-in-3 Americans living with a criminal history. R3 Score offers the benefit of context to a criminal history thereby allowing those living with a criminal record to be met with success when seeking suitable work, banking, housing, and educational opportunities. Her innovative approach to criminal justice advocacy has led to national recognition. She presented twice at SXSW (2016 and 2017) and is a 2017 Dewey Winburne SXSW Community Service Award recipient. Teresa’s TEDx talk “We’ve Made Coming Home Too Hard” highlights the impact of personal bias and social stigma on formerly incarcerated people.