DURANGO, CO, April 21, 2026 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Megan Goddard, CEO, Kizuna, has been selected for inclusion in Marquis Who's Who. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.

Ms. Goddard's career is marked by a steadfast commitment to transforming the way society addresses the intersection of employment and criminal records. Her experience across reentry and background screening gave her a clear view of the pressures employers face when making hiring decisions. It also showed her how often those concerns are addressed through inconsistent or subjective practices rather than clear, contextual, and defensible review.

In 2025, Ms. Goddard co-founded Kizuna, where she serves as chief executive officer. In this role, she oversees business development, enterprise sales, product design, and channel partnerships. Ms. Goddard also spearheads fundraising efforts, having raised a pre-seed round of $1.4 million from venture capital firms in April 2025 as the team prepares for its next phase of growth.

Kizuna's mission reflects Ms. Goddard's vision for a more intelligent screening system. Recognizing that 94 percent of employers conduct background checks and that one in three Americans carry a criminal record, Kizuna is working to bring clarity, consistency, and trust to a process that too often breaks down under subjective risk assumptions.

Ms. Goddard and her team first identified these challenges while working together at a leading background check company, where they saw organizations struggle to interpret findings and act on them with confidence. Too often, screening decisions were driven by slow, manual processes and generalized assumptions about risk, leading to delayed hiring, inconsistent outcomes, and significant loss of talent. Because background checks typically occur at the final stage of hiring, those breakdowns are especially costly, given the substantial investment already made by both candidates and employers.

Under Ms. Goddard's leadership, Kizuna is developing innovative solutions that equip organizations with scientifically grounded insights and decision-support tools, ensuring they can maximize opportunity without compromising safety or compliance. Recognizing that most employers and hiring managers are not experts in interpreting criminal records or assessing human risk, Ms. Goddard is focused on establishing Kizuna as a trusted authority—one that organizations can confidently rely on to navigate complex screening decisions. Drawing on experience supporting some of the world's largest employers in improving their screening processes, she and her team provide guidance and tools that enable efficient, compliant, and evidence-based outcomes.

Ms. Goddard's approach is deeply informed by her personal experiences and longstanding dedication to criminal justice reform — a passion ignited at age 16. Her journey began after witnessing the painful consequences of crime and gang violence in her Los Angeles neighborhood, which sparked a fascination with how society responds to crime. What she found was a system defined by contradiction: massive public investment in incarceration yielding little measurable reduction in crime and recidivism. Driven by that realization, she spent years studying domestic and international criminal justice models, working inside prisons and jails, and eventually transitioning into reentry and background screening — each step deepening her conviction that the system demanded not just reform, but reimagination.

Prior to founding Kizuna, Ms. Goddard held a director role at the Center for Employment Opportunities, advising large employers on hiring and screening strategies that responsibly managed risk while expanding their talent pool. From 2018 to 2022, she held multiple roles at Checkr Inc., including overseeing product compliance and corporate social responsibility. In these capacities, she gained invaluable insights into employer decision-making processes and solutions to optimize their screening processes for greater speed, accuracy, and effectiveness.

Earlier in her career, Ms. Goddard was a program manager at Defy Ventures from 2016 to 2017, where she led entrepreneurship programs for individuals reintegrating into society after incarceration. She also contributed as a communications specialist at The Reset Foundation from 2013 to 2014 and served as workshop facilitator for Lyrics on Lockdown at Rikers Island in 2013. Her professional affiliations include serving as a board member of the High Ambition Climate Collective since 2024.

Ms. Goddard's academic foundation includes a bachelor's degree in psychology and social entrepreneurship from New York University in New York City, earned in 2016. Ms. Goddard also holds several certifications, such as a fair assessor from Checkr, accreditation from the Professional Background Screening Association and designation as a training expert through Jobs for Humanity. Civically involved, she has volunteered as a teacher delivering job readiness courses in jails and prisons across the country, including Rikers Island, Solano, and Valley State Prison.

Throughout her journey, Ms. Goddard has drawn inspiration from influential figures such as Gregory Boyle of Homeboy Industries and Bryan Stevenson—whose advocacy for justice reform has shaped her perspective on systemic change—as well as from her entrepreneurial family members. In her personal life, she enjoys hiking, Muay Thai boxing, salsa dancing, reading, and engaging in deep conversation.

Looking ahead, Ms. Goddard envisions expanding Kizuna's impact beyond employment screening into marketplace trust, insurance underwriting, lending decisions, and credentialing processes. She ultimately aspires to influence criminal justice sentencing practices and international screening standards across industries reliant on human risk evaluation.

Ms. Goddard's lifelong mission remains clear: to reimagine hiring and screening systems to foster mutual trust and maximize outcomes for candidates and decision-makers.

About Marquis Who's Who®:
Since 1899, when A. N. Marquis printed the First Edition of Who's Who in America®, Marquis Who's Who® has chronicled the lives of the most accomplished individuals and innovators from every significant field of endeavor, including politics, business, medicine, law, education, art, religion and entertainment. The suite of Marquis® publications, including Who's Who in America® and Who's Who in the World®, remains an essential biographical source for thousands of researchers, journalists, librarians and executive search firms around the globe. Marquis® publications can be viewed at the official Marquis Who's Who® website, www.marquiswhoswho.com.

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