sujatha baliga

Buddhist, Change Agent, Connector, Educator/Teacher, Explorer, Idea generator, Lawyer, Life mentor, Parent, Public servant, World traveler, Writer/Editor

sujatha baliga loves everyone, no exceptions. (Yup, including that person.) She speaks publicly and inside prisons about her experiences as a survivor of child sexual abuse and her path to forgiveness. A former victim advocate and public defender in New York and New Mexico, baliga was awarded a Soros Justice Fellowship in 2008 which she used to launch a new national model for restorative justice for serious harm caused by young people. During her tenure as the director of The Restorative Justice Project, she was named a 2019 MacArthur Fellow. She’s thrilled that her first book, Angry Long Enough: Towards Healing and Repair for Ourselves and The World, will be published by One World/Penguin Random House in the fall of 2026. sujatha’s spiritual life is the root of her justice work. A long-time Buddhist practitioner, she's a lay member of the Gyuto Foundation, a Tibetan Buddhist Monastery in Richmond, CA, where she teaches meditation on Monday nights. She makes her home in Berkeley, CA, with her spouse of 25 years, Jason, and their 18-year-old child, Sathya. sujatha earned her A.B. from Harvard and Radcliffe Colleges, her J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, and has held two federal clerkships. Her personal and research interests include the forgiveness of seemingly unforgivable acts, restorative justice’s potential impact on racial disparities in our legal systems, and Buddhist notions of conflict transformation.

I believe families and communities are capable of resolving harm and conflict without reliance on legal systems.

Universal compassion can replace anger as the driving force for repairing harm.

Forgiveness, Healing After Harm, Meaningful Accountability, Meditation, Peacemaking, Restorative Justice

I cherish my time at TED events, connecting with wonderful, thoughtful people.

Silence.