2025 Rising Star Award: Damon Christian Watson

2025 Rising Star Award

Damon Christian Watson

Senior Director of Legal Services and Corporate Development
New Jersey Reentry Corp.

Building effective nonprofit systems requires both vision and execution — especially in work as complex as reentry. In just a few years, Damon Christian Watson has emerged as a key leader at New Jersey Reentry Corp., helping scale legal services that remove barriers to employment and stability for thousands of individuals returning from incarceration.

Watson, senior director of legal services and corporate development at New Jersey Reentry Corp., is the recipient of this year’s NonProfit PRO Rising Star Award, recognized for leading and expanding one of the nation’s most comprehensive nonprofit legal services operations focused on reentry and employment access.

Since joining New Jersey Reentry Corp. in 2020, Watson has helped transform legal services into a cornerstone of the organization’s model. In his role, he leads and trains the nonprofit’s legal services coordinators — non-lawyers who provide critical assistance to participants, including municipal court warrant recalls and fine waivers, criminal record expungements, driver’s license restoration, identification document recovery and pro bono legal support referrals. In addition to overseeing legal services, Watson manages the nonprofit’s grant applications and collaborates on talent recruitment.

“Damon has been instrumental in building the capacity and effectiveness of our legal services team,” his nominator told NonProfit PRO. “He has helped turn a small but effective operation into a high-performing system that clears the path for every other part of NJRC’s work.”

In Watson’s first five years of leadership, New Jersey Reentry Corp. legal services has assisted 17,933 participants, helping them obtain 4,940 birth certificates, 2,438 state IDs, 1,643 restored driver’s licenses, 3,199 warrant recalls, and 126 complete criminal record expungements. His team has also helped revoke nearly $3 million in bail and waive more than $2.8 million in municipal court fines — outcomes that directly improve access to employment, housing and stability.

Watson’s professional leadership is informed by lived experience. Earlier in his career, personal loss and addiction led to a period of instability and incarceration. According to his nominator, that experience strengthened his understanding of the barriers the organization exists to remove. After learning about NJRC’s mission, Watson, who has a Bachelor of Arts from Princeton University and a law degree from Harvard University, joined the organization as a part-time legal services coordinator and steadily advanced into a leadership role.

“Everything Watson has done at NJRC has been in selfless pursuit of the mission — to remove barriers to employment facing many whom society has deemed unworthy of redemption or a second chance,” his nominator said. “For years, he was one of them. Working with NJRC was his second chance, and he has capitalized on it.”

The Rest of the 2025 NonProfit Professionals of the Year Awards

• NonProfit Professionals of the Year Award: Michael T. Pugh
• Lifetime Achievement Award: Margaret Foti and Joanne Samuel Goldblum
• Fundraiser of the Year Award: Jason Heitman
• Unsung Hero Award: Tracy Cramer