NEXT PAGE | Opus 1 Foundation

'I'm starting Next PAGE because as a crime reporter I was tired of writing the same tragic stories about kids in the system again and again. By handing the pen to incarcerated kids instead, they will finally have the chance to do what we all deserve: to start telling their own stories and dream of bigger and better endings.'

- Emily Palmer

Executive Director & Founder

It's Time to Write a Different Story

Next PAGE is a trauma-informed creative writing workshop that provides a safe space for incarcerated youth to build community, shape self-identity and open up about past struggles. Giving kids in the system the tools to tell their own narratives, youth are encouraged to glance backward in order to focus on the future, looking ahead to transitioning back into society. The program is designed to encourage a love of writing and the arts, enhancing communication and behavioral skills, and in the long-term, helping rectify abysmal literacy rates amongst incarcerated teens.

Launching as a 13-week pilot program in New York City in Fall 2025, over time, the syllabus and coursework will be expanded to year-long workshops, refined at each iteration by an advisory board and student surveys, enabling participants to make their own mark on the program’s future. Guest artists – including award-winning poets and musicians – will perform and join student panels. With a focus toward students transitioning out of the system, their work will later be published in a coffee table collection, with royalties split between published student-authors.

Opus 1 Foundation serves as the fiscal sponsor for the Next PAGE program.

EMILY PALMER

ABOUT

Emily is a criminal justice reporter committed to exposing systemic problems and challenging preconceived notions. Bringing nuance and clarity to every story, she reveals not just what happens, but why. A longtime contributor to The New York Times and previously a senior crime writer at People, her work often features kids in foster care as well as those behind bars. Her byline has also appeared in The Boston Globe, ProPublica, Cosmopolitan and ELLE. As an educator, Emily has served as an adjunct reporting professor at Columbia Graduate School of Journalism.

INSPIRATION

For years, Emily Palmer was one of the first reporters on the scene of murders across New York City’s five boroughs. A witness to some of her community’s worst moments, she focused on trying to answer the why behind the stories she told. Children were at the heartbeat of many of them: dead on the street or locked up in detention centers and charged as adults. She felt like she was writing the same story again and again.

Systemic change is only possible if you switch the narrative. Next PAGE operates under the belief that that change starts with kids learning to tell their own stories – thereby rewriting them.

Program Advisors

David Muhammad

David is an innovative thought leader in the fields of criminal justice, violence prevention, and youth development. As the Executive Director of the National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform (NICJR), a non-profit organization, he works to reduce incarceration and violence, improve the outcomes of system-involved youth and adults, and increase the capacity and expertise of the organizations that serve them. In 2025, The New York Times featured his own story: one that started with childhood arrests in Oakland, California and eventually led him to return to his hometown as the chief probation officer for Alameda County, seeking to help fix the system from the inside.

Erika Tullberg, PhD

Erika is an Assistant Professor at NYU Langone Health’s Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, where her work focuses on the trauma-related needs of children that have experienced maltreatment. At NYU she has led multiple grant-funded projects focused on developing and implementing trauma-informed child welfare practices, with a focus on organizational assessment. Erika previously worked for New York City’s Administration for Children’s Services, where she led a department that planned, implemented, and oversaw program and policy development involving issues of domestic violence, health, mental health, and substance abuse.

Jeanell English

Jeanell is an experienced operations leader and entertainment executive with expertise in diversity, equity, accessibility, & inclusion (DEAI) and learning and development. The co-founder of the independent publishing house, Elizabeth and Minnie Publishing, Jeanell is dedicated to identifying and amplifying diverse voices and stories. She previously served as the Executive Vice President of Impact and Inclusion for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, where she led the Academy’s initiatives to redress underrepresentation across the industry. In 2022 Variety named her a “New Leader in Hollywood” for her award-winning impact-producing work for the Oscars.

Simone Zapata

Simone is a queer writer and educator who believes in writing as a liberatory practice, with language having the capacity to transform personal and political landscapes. As the Managing Editor for The Beat Within, a California-based publication by and for incarcerated youth, Simone brings over a decade of experience in non-profit programming, arts facilitation, and literacy development to her work with young people. Her poetry has earned her scholarships and fellowships from California Institute of the Arts, Community of Writers, and Miami Book Fair.

Margaret Blaustein, PhD

Margaret is a clinical psychologist who focuses on the treatment of complex childhood trauma and what comes after. With a holistic emphasis on understanding the children, as well as their families and caregivers, she co-developed the Attachment, Regulation, and Competency (ARC) treatment framework. Margaret is the founder and director of the Center for Trauma Training in Needham, MA., working on local, regional and national collaborations dedicated to the empathic, respectful, and effective provision of services to these children and the adults in their lives.

Josie Whittlesey

Josie is an actor, director and theater instructor who empowers young people through empathy and self-expression. She is the founder and executive director of Drama Club, a theater program offering year-round weekly classes at New York City’s high-security youth detention facilities in Brownsville, Brooklyn and the South Bronx, as well as at two housing units for young people incarcerated on Rikers Island. Drama Club provides theater training and mentor relationships to youth on each step of their journey through the criminal justice system from detention and placement to probation and aftercare.

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