ABOUT DANT'E
LIVED EXPERIENCE
REAL-WORLD SOLUTIONS
A MORE JUST TOMORROW
Dant’e Cottingham is a speaker, educator, reentry advocate, and formerly incarcerated juvenile lifer who turns lived experience into practical tools for lasting change. After serving 27 years in prison, he returned home with a commitment to creating opportunities for others.
Today, he teaches at the University of Wisconsin Law School, supports individuals transitioning from incarceration to community, and works with legal professionals and organizations to strengthen understanding, accountability, and opportunity.
He is also the author of The Formula: From the Life You Were Given to the Life You Choose, a memoir that invites readers to recognize the strengths, relationships, and choices that can shape a different future.
SPEAKING & TRAINING
Dant'e Cottingham brings lived experience, education, and advocacy together to help organizations, legal professionals, and communities build more effective, just, and human-centered systems.
Lived Experience. Real Skills. Stronger Systems
LAW SCHOOLS
& UNIVERSITIES
LEGAL PROFESSIONALS & PUBLIC DEFENDERS
COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS
CONFERENCES AND TRAINING EVENTS
TOPICS INCLUDE
Lived Experience as a Professional Skill Set
Juvenile Justice and Second Look
Client Communication and Cultural Humility
Reentry, System Impact, and Policy Change
Accountability, Healing, and Trauma-Informed Care
"So greatful that Dante Cottingham accepted my invitation to. come talk to my team. A powerful story that we all needed to hear."
Kathryn (Kat) Yanke
Regional Attorney Manager
Stevens Point Region
Wisconsin State Public Defenders
REAL-WORLD INSIGHT
Turns lived experience into actionable knowledge for stronger systems.
ENGAGING & PRACTICAL
Combines personal story, data, and solutions.
Helps organizations improve practice, policy, and outcomes.
MEASURABLE IMPACT
IN THE NEWS
Justice Between Us
An upcoming PBS documentary featuring Dant'e Cottingham as he draws on his own journey and experience to help other juvenile lifers navigate reentry and rebuild their lives after decades of incarceration.
DOCUMENTARY COMING SOON
From Wisconsin Prison to Germany: Dant'e Cottingham Share Lessons on Redemption
From serving 27 years in prison to traveling to Germany to share his lived experience, Dant'e Cottingham's journey comes full circle as he brings his perspective on justice, incarceration, and second chances to an international audience.
THE WORK
EDUCATION
Changing how people learn.
ADVOCACY
Turning insight into action.
REENTRY
Creating pathways forward.
TRANSFORMATION
Making change possible.
WHAT PEOLPE ARE SAYING
Real Stories. Real Impact.
Mr. Cottingham is an engaging and inspirational speaker. He is honest and forthright in his presentation. He is open to telling his story unconditionally - both harm and redemption.
- Wendy Volz Daniels,
MSW, LCSW
Marquette University, Associate Professor
Dant'e is an extraordinarily compelling speaker and a powerful advocate for redefining public safety and centering human dignity in our criminal legal system. He was a speaker on a recent panel about the parole system, and attendees were both deeply moved and energized by the remarks. I highly recommend Dant'e as an expert speaker!
- Kate Finley,
Clinical Associate Professor
University of Wisconsin Madison
So greatful that Dante Cottingham accepted my invitation to. come talk to my team. A powerful story that we all needed to hear.
Kathryn (Kat) Yanke
Regional Attorney Manager
Stevens Point Region
Wisconsin State Public Defenders