About
Desmond Meade is a nationally recognized civil rights leader, president of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, and the community organizer who led the effort to change Florida’s Constitution to restore voting rights to more than 1.4 million Floridians with past felony convictions.
He was named one of TIME Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2019, received the MacArthur "Genius Grant" Fellowship in 2021, and in 2023, under Meade’s leadership, his organization was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. His personal journey of overcoming hardship, homelessness, and incarceration has shaped his message of redemption and opportunity. He joined the 2026 featured panel.
Elsewhere on this story
- Desmond Meade on Nightmare Success Nightmare Success episode: Desmond Meade, Addiction Story, Prison and Reentry Lessons
At the White Collar Conference
Desmond Meade began with August 2005, when he stood at railroad tracks in South Florida waiting to jump in front of a train, then crossed them and checked into a treatment program, a path that led to college and a law degree from FIU. He said language such as "returning citizens" in place of "felon" helps humanize people with records, and he described Clean Slate record-clearing laws, the work of the national organization his wife, Sheena Meade, leads. He urged listeners to embrace pain rather than run from it and to pass their blessings on to others.
“The most important first step that I made was when I actually stepped across those railroad tracks.”
Watch at 12:48
“That altered the course of our lives, but it did not alter our humanity.”
Watch at 21:32
“Pass it on to others. Use your experiences to improve the lives of others.”
Watch at 37:28
Chapters
- 0:00 Panel opening and format
- 1:07 Drew on his startup failure and owning it
- 3:55 Rashmi's path from honors student to prison
- 10:33 Desmond at the railroad tracks
- 16:52 Who first said yes after the conviction
- 19:43 Desmond on humanizing language
- 24:58 Rashmi on disclosing your past at work
- 28:21 Desmond on Clean Slate and record clearing
- 30:55 Advice for someone newly indicted
- 34:59 Desmond on embracing pain and passing it on
- 38:34 How to reach the panelists
With Rashmi Airan and Drew Chapin (moderator)
Join us in fall 2027.
The fourth annual White Collar Conference is planned for fall 2027, virtual on Zoom and open to all.