Almost Everything Took Me Twice.

Before the Ph.D., the judicial robe, or the executive title, Kerry Shipman was a teen father and high-school dropout trying to build a future before he had fully figured out adulthood.

He earned a GED, was dismissed from law school and fought his way back. During that same chapter, he lost his mother to cancer and took full custody of his younger brother. Almost nothing came on the first try. His story became one of return, rebuilding and persistence—and the belief that accountability and humanity belong in the same room.

DR. KERRY
SHIPMAN

Justice • Healing • Leadership

Former NC Magistrate Judge

Ph.D. in Criminal Justice

Behavioral Health Executive

Professor & Educator

The résumé cannot explain.

Kerry became a father while he was still a teenager. He dropped out of high school, earned a GED, and learned responsibility before he ever had the luxury of feeling ready. Years later, while he was in law school, cancer took his mother. At 26, he took full custody of his 15-year-old brother—a family story later profiled by The Post and Courier.

Law school itself was not a clean victory. Kerry was dismissed, forced to face the possibility that the dream was over, and then fought his way back. He finished the J.D. and later earned a Ph.D. in Criminal Justice. In his own words, almost everything took twice.

His professional life moved through courts, public service, higher education and behavioral health. The through-line is the same: understanding what happens to people when systems are rigid, fragmented or disconnected—and building something more useful in response.

Three Lenses. One Body of Work.

Dr. Shipman’s work is intentionally broad in experience but disciplined in focus: how people and institutions move from crisis to stability, from barriers to opportunity, and from intention to accountable action.

JUSTICE

Courts, reentry, public policy, legal literacy, system accountability and the real consequences of how justice is administered.

HEALING

Behavioral health, trauma-responsive systems, family support, men’s wellness, fatherhood and culturally grounded care.

LEADERSHIP

Executive decision-making, organizational systems, teaching, public speaking and turning lived lessons into practical structures that other people can use.

Public Record & In the News

WBTV has interviewed Dr. Shipman on North Carolina criminal-justice policy. Official records document his service as a Mecklenburg County Magistrate, participation in the NC Judicial Branch Speakers Bureau, NCDHHS reentry work and earlier civic appointments.

Research & Writing

His public writing spans mental health advocacy, parent engagement and opportunity, while his legal and academic work includes publication in The Bencher, criminal-law scholarship indexed by Google Scholar and doctoral research on family support in reentry.

Bring a perspective shaped by both systems and real life into the room.

Available for keynote speaking, panels, media commentary, advisory work, training and academic collaboration.