Sarah Bryer, NJJN's Director, has been working in the criminal justice field for more than fifteen years. Prior to joining NJJN, she lived in New York City where she was the Director of Policy and Planning at the Center for Alternative Sentencing and Employment Services (CASES), an alternative-to-incarceration program serving more than 10,000 misdemeanor and felony-level, court-involved, youth and adults per year. Also in New York, Ms. Bryer worked at the Center for Court Innovation where she started the Bronx and Queens drug courts, and subsequently was the Manager of Youth Programs, where she initiated one of New York City’s first Youth Courts in Red Hook, Brooklyn. She has been a victim-offender mediator for court-involved youth in California and was an appellate investigator for adults on death row. She received a Bachelor with honors and distinction in Anthropology from Stanford University and a Master in Public Policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
Annie Balck, NJJN’s Program and Policy Associate, has been working on behalf of at-risk and disadvantaged youth for over four years. Prior to joining NJJN, Ms. Balck was a staff attorney at the Children’s Law Center (CLC) in Washington, D.C. At CLC, she represented children as a guardian ad litem in abuse and neglect cases. She received a Frederick B. Abramson Public Interest Fellowship Award in 2005 for her work at CLC. In 2004, Ms. Balck worked as a student attorney for the Juvenile Rights Advocacy Project in Newton, Massachusetts where she represented girls in delinquency and CHINS (child in need of service) cases. In 2003, Ms. Balck served as a law clerk at University Legal Services (ULS), the federally mandated protection and advocacy organization for individuals with disabilities in Washington, D.C. Her clients at ULS included youth with both mental and physical disabilities. Prior to law school, Ms. Balck worked in development at the Olney Theatre Center for the Arts in Olney, MD, where she also formed a theater troupe for high school students to use writing and performance to explore social issues. Ms. Balck has a bachelor’s degree in English with high distinction from the University of Michigan and received her juris doctor from Georgetown University.