Overview

A captivating story detailing how resilience and inner strength can be combined to overcome mountainous barriers to reach one’s full potential.  Growing up in Ferguson, Missouri, Stanley Andrisse began making poor decisions at a very young age. He started selling dope and was arrested for the first time at fourteen years old. By his early twenties, dope dealing had exponentially multiplied, and he found himself sitting in front of a judge facing twenty years to life on drug trafficking charges. The judge sentenced him to ten years in a maximum-security prison. Prison was an experience like none other he’d ever encountered. While challenged with a strong desire for self-renewal, he faced an environment that was not conducive for transformative change. From poor institutional structure and policies to individual institutionalized thinking and behaviors, he battled on a daily basis to retain and maintain his humanity. Upon release, and after several rejections, Stanley was accepted into a PhD program. He completed his PhD/MBA simultaneously and became an endocrinologist and impactful leader at Johns Hopkins Medicine, specializing in diabetes research.

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9781642939408

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Reviews

This is an incredibly powerful book about abolition, redemption, transformation, and the power of story in the fight for justice. Andrisse reminds readers of the remarkable range of talent, intellect, skill, and strength among people locked in cages in the United States. Every student, teacher, teacher educator, community member, parent, researcher, policymaker, police, and correctional officer, interested in more deeply understanding the human condition in prisons and committed to reimagining the carceral system, should read this book. An undeniable invitation to reimagine opportunity structures for all citizenry, this book touches the heart and the mind. -- Rich Milner, Cornelius Vanderbilt Distinguished Professor of Education, Peabody College of Vanderbilt University A detailed, riveting look at the author's epic journey: from early missteps, diving into darker pursuits, going through periods of incarceration and devaluation by society, and finally emerging into an impressive life that demonstrably contributes to society. Andrisse's words are raw, realistic, and undeniably authentic. His story is a classic tale of wrong-to-reclamation, but it is so much more meaningful in this time of awakening in social justice reform. It captures the power of positive reinforcement in the echoes of his father's words 'It is never too late to do good.' It also dispels the myth that groups of people can be dismissed as irredeemable. It is rare to find a book that describes the experience of incarceration without being either sensationalistic or trite. This book challenges stereotypes and allows the reader to travel alongside the author as he lives his experiences. It shows the power of education, hard work, mentorship, and of simply being supported by those who believe in the potential of others that may have different histories. -- Sheila R. Meiman, Raritan Valley Community College, Director of Returning & Incarcerated Student Education (RISE), Adjunct Associate Professor of Mathematics From Prison Cells to PhD is one of the most provocative books I've read. It forces us to take a hard look at the inequity baked into American life, and consider how someone as brilliant as Dr. Stan Andrisse could find himself behind bars, incarcerated for an extended period of time. The book is both a searing memoir, and a hard push to reexamine our carceral and education systems and how they intersect. The stories that Andrisse tells are vivid and compelling. Despite a glut of books about life in prison, the passages in this one where Andrisse experiences incarceration feel particularly urgent, and disturbing. His traumatic experiences with guards, and with his own suicidal thoughts bring the reader into a hell on earth that most of us are happy to avoid thinking much about. Andrisse did an enormous amount of research for this book, interviewing past acquaintances, friends and enemies to try to fully understand the path he took. Fundamentally, this is a memoir about redemption, and about the constricted choices that society gives us. Without spoiling the punchline, Andrisse ends up a successful endocrinologist, with his own non profit that helps returning citizens get an education. But to get there, he first experiences life as a drug kingpin, making exorbitant amounts of money but burning relationships with friends and family, and taking enormous personal risks along the way. Why couldn't Andrisse have skipped the parts of his life that ended with his prison sentence and status as a an ex-convict, and instead complete a more traditional path through academia? That is the burning question throughout the book. His answer is that for Black Americans born into cities like Ferguson, St. Louis and Baltimore the pathways are constricted. The book is filled with fascinating characters from the multiple worlds that Andrisse traverses. It is extremely readable. It also provides an important meditation on the ways in which America constrains our own talent pool by mass incarceration of so many of our citizens. -- Zeke Cohen, Baltimore City Council Member

Author Information

Dr. Stanley Andrisse is an endocrinologist scientist and assistant professor at Howard University College of Medicine researching type 2 diabetes and insulin resistance. Dr. Andrisse holds a visiting professorship at Georgetown University Medical Center and held an adjunct professorship at Johns Hopkins Medicine after completing his postdoctoral training. Dr. Andrisse completed his PhD at Saint Louis University and his MBA and bachelor’s degree at Lindenwood University, where he played three years of Division II collegiate football.  Dr. Andrisse’s service commitments include: Executive Director and Founder of From Prison Cells to PhD, board member on the Formerly Incarcerated College Graduates Network (FICGN), past president of the Johns Hopkins Postdoctoral Association, founder of the Diversity Postdoctoral Alliance, member on several local and national committees aimed at community outreach, youth mentor, motivational speaker, and community activist.

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