Monte Pollard is the Executive Director of Changing Perceptions and a native Washingtonian whose personal experience with incarceration and reentry informs his commitment to creating pathways to stability and opportunity. After assuming leadership in 2021 at a pivotal moment in the organization’s history, Monte rebuilt, stabilized, and professionalized Changing Perceptions, transforming it from a vulnerable grassroots nonprofit into an award-winning, data-driven reentry organization serving hundreds of justice-impacted individuals annually. Monte is a 2025–2026 Obama Foundation USA Leader, and holds an MBA from Southern New Hampshire University. His civic leadership extends across reentry, housing justice, violence prevention, and systems reform. He serves as an advisory member of the District Task Force on Jails & Justice and as a co-lead of the CEO/Executive Director Support Group within the DC Social Justice Transformations Network, an initiative of the DC Bar Foundation. Monte formerly served on the Leadership Council of the DC Reentry Housing Alliance, where he helped advance collaborative solutions to the housing barriers confronting returning citizens. His broader experience includes serving as a Community Outreach Specialist with the Mayor’s Office on Returning Citizen Affairs, and a Program Manager for Violence Intervention and Prevention at Collaborative Solutions for Communities. These roles have given Monte a multidimensional understanding of how incarceration, housing instability, community violence, and economic exclusion intersect. Monte’s work is grounded in a clear conviction: returning home should not mean returning to instability. Through Changing Perceptions, he is building a model that demonstrates what becomes possible when communities invest in returning citizens as workers, parents, entrepreneurs, neighbors, and leaders.