Media Contact: Javier Rojas, Javier.rojas@csun.edu, (818) 677-2130 or Carmen Ramos Chandler, carmen.chandler@csun.edu, (818) 677-2130
California State University, Northridge (CSUN) will confer an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree upon Aqeela Sherrills in recognition of his decades of leadership advancing community-based public safety, violence prevention and healing for survivors, university officials announced today.
Sherrills is an internationally recognized leader and innovator in community-based public safety and victim support and is well-known for his pivotal role in brokering the historic 1992 peace treaty between the Crips and Bloods in Los Angeles, which helped reduce homicides in the community by 44 percent.
“Aqeela Sherrills has spent his life doing something rare and profound — returning to the communities that shaped him and empowering them to heal themselves,” said CSUN President Erika D. Beck. “His work is rooted in a simple but revolutionary idea that public safety is not just the absence of violence, but the presence of well-being. At CSUN, we believe deeply in the power of community, in equity, and in the dignity of every person. Mr. Sherrills embodies those values in everything he has built. We are proud to honor a former student whose courage, vision and compassion have saved lives and changed how a nation thinks about safety and justice.”
Sherrills has advised hundreds of organizations and founded and led nonprofit organizations that promote safety and reduce violence in metropolitan areas. He is the founder and executive director of the Community Based Public Safety Collective (CBPSC), which trains and supports local public safety organizations in evidence-based approaches to violence prevention and survivor recovery.
Sherrills’ dedication to ending violence and promoting community-based public safety began in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, where he joined the Grape Street Crips before fleeing the violence to attend college. At the age on 19, Sherrills and Pro NFL Hall of Famer Jim Brown co-founded the Amer-I-Can Program aimed at equipping young people in communities fractured by violence with the tools to realize economic independence and community power. More than 400,000 adult and juvenile offenders in 16 states received Amer-I-Can training between 1989 and 1999, and 1,500 high-risk adolescents were kept out of the California criminal justice system through the Amer-I-Can program.
In 2004, Sherrills lost his 18-year-old son Terrell to gun violence while he was returning home from college. He channeled his grief into action and launched The Reverence Project (TRP) in 2007. TRP provided healing-centered services to survivors of crime and trauma, bringing together activists, healers and artists to build community wellness and resilience through restorative justice, intentional dialogue, and alternative healing approaches.
In 2012, Sherrills became lead organizer for Californians for Safety and Justice, building a network of more than 10,000 crime survivors to reshape how the state approaches public safety, centering healing and prevention over incarceration. That network played a key role in the passage of Proposition 47, landmark legislation that redirected prison cost savings into mental health treatment, trauma recovery services, and programs for at-risk youth. He was appointed National Training Director of the Crime Survivors for Safety and Justice Initiative by The Alliance for Safety and Justice in 2017, where he developed a curriculum that trains survivors to advocate effectively for policy reform.
In addition to his leadership of CBPSC, Sherrills chairs the board of the Newark Community Street Team and serves on the board of directors of the Alliance for Safety and Justice.
CSUN will confer Sherrills’ honorary doctorate at the commencement ceremony for the College of Health and Human Development on Monday, May 18, 2026, at 8 a.m.
One of the largest universities in the country, CSUN is an urban, comprehensive university that delivers award-winning undergraduate and graduate programs to more than 36,000 students annually and more than 425,000 alumni who fuel the region’s economy. Since its founding in 1958, CSUN has made a significant and long-term economic impact on California, generating nearly $1.9 billion in economic impact and nearly 12,000 jobs each year. CSUN is a Hispanic-Serving Institution, ranking among the top twenty in the nation in graduating Latinx students. CSUN has been designated as a California Black-Serving Institution (BSI), a statewide recognition for advancing Black and African American student success. More than 70 percent of CSUN students are first-generation college students, and 60 percent come from historically underrepresented groups. Money magazine consistently ranks CSUN among the nation’s “most transformative” colleges for setting students on the path to higher career earnings.
