April Barber

April Barber is a Certified Peer Support Specialist, advocate, and proud mother living in North Carolina. She sees herself as a role model for those impacted by the justice system and serves on several local and statewide boards. April will complete her Bachelor’s in Criminal Justice by the end of 2025 and aspires to open her own peer support business.

In 1991, at the age of 15, April was sentenced to life without parole. She was incarcerated for over 31 years before Governor Roy Cooper commuted her sentence. While in prison, she fought for education—both her own and others’—and began transforming herself and her life. “The world began to see who I became, not who I was,” she says.

As a leader, April believes in the power of change: “One day. One step. One moment at a time.”