Kathy Rateliff

Arkansas Programming

Email: kathyrateliff@poetijustice.org

Kathy first heard of Poetic Justice through the Arkansas Literary Festival ( now called Six Bridges Book Festival) in 2017 when Ellen Stackable and Hanna al Jibouri were scheduled to speak. She quickly got on the phone and asked if they could teach a literacy class at the jail during their visit. They readily agreed. “After watching the magic happen in that classroom  I knew we wanted to bring it to Arkansas, it just took us a while to get the structure built.”

Since 2016 Rateliff has taught literacy classes at the Pulaski County Detention Facility (over zoom), and from 2017 she has taught art to teens at the Pulaski Juvenile Detention Center (over zoom). She became a Think Legacy volunteer at Hawkins Women’s Prison (re-entry program) in 2017. Through Westover Hills Presbyterian Women, funds (and volunteers) are dedicated each year to support outreach to the incarcerated programs.

With an MA in communications from LSU, Rateliff worked in healthcare outreach/education and marketing during her career. For several years she wrote a weekly “Cancer Answers,” column for the Arkansas Gazette. She is a past President of the Arkansas Association of Business Communicators (IABC). Active in community outreach efforts she has volunteered for Literacy Action of Central Arkansas and Central Arkansas Library (CALS), “Basement Volunteers.” Through a partnership with CALS Rateliff initiated, thousands of books are now donated each year to Arkansas prisons as well as the Pulaski County Jail.