Alejandra is a staff attorney at School Justice Project (SJP), a non-profit in Washington, D.C. that represents young people ages 17-22 with disabilities that are court-involved. As a staff attorney, Alejandra focuses primarily on direct representation and systemic advocacy to change the educational landscape for older court-involved students with disabilities and create alternatives to incarceration.

Alejandra earned her B.A. in Communication and Women and Gender Studies from Rutgers University in 2015 and graduated from Temple University Beasley School of Law in 2018. During law school, Alejandra had a particular focus on juvenile justice. She spent her 1L summer in D.C. where she wrote detailed legal memoranda on juvenile justice “reverse waiver” laws which was presented to D.C. Council. Alejandra also participated in Temple’s Law and Public Policy Program and wrote an extensive policy paper on waiver laws that allow children to be charged as adults in the United States.

During law school in Philadelphia, Alejandra also interned for the Federal Community Defender Office’s Capital Habeas Unit, Juvenile Law Center, and participated in the Sheller Center Clinic for Social Justice. Alejandra returned to D.C. for her last semester of law school, where she had the privilege to work directly with impacted young people as a legal intern for the Juvenile Services Program at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia. After graduating law school, Alejandra clerked for the Honorable Lucretia Clemons, Court of Common Pleas in Philadelphia, PA before returning to D.C as a staff attorney at SJP.

Advocacy Project Summary: Alejandra’s project will create a training model and information network that will educate defense attorneys and judges about the unique ways education-related advocacy reduces incarceration and will create practice standards for education attorneys in adult criminal cases. It will also re-examine the practice of holistic defense and the importance of non-traditional defense practitioners in aiding court-involved young people with their multifaceted areas of need.

Alexis Hicks is an emerging social justice advocate from Hollandale, MS. She holds a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Mississippi and an M.S. in Social Justice and Criminology from Delta State University. Over the years, Alexis has worked in numerous capacities providing support to underserved populations across Mississippi.

Today, Alexis serves as the Director of Youth Engagement and Advocacy at Teen Health Mississippi. In her role, she engages and partners with youth across the state to inform and support Teen Health Mississippi’s sexual and reproductive health and rights work. She also coordinates the Mobilizing Youth Summit, an annual convening of youth across the state that equips them with the skills, knowledge, and resources to build sustainable, community-level advocacy campaigns. Most recently, Alexis joined the Mississippi Safe Schools Coalition as a Youth Equity and Inclusion Officer. In her role, she is responsible for providing ongoing support to LGBTQ+ students, parents, and school districts related to youth rights, equity, and inclusion.

Alexis is driven by change that takes a holistic, cross-sectoral approach to youth development. She is especially dedicated to improving the lives of minority youth through system reform, trauma-informed practices, and community engagement. She is excited to join the Youth Justice Leadership Institute and hopes that this opportunity supplies her with the advocacy tools necessary to spearhead a living program for transitional age, justice-involved, and homeless youth.

Advocacy Project Summary: Alexis' advocacy project is a movement forged out of a vision to bring youth advocates, elected officials, and other key experts together to build collective action surrounding real-world issues. Hosted by Teen Health Mississippi and youth partners, the Mobilizing Youth Summit (MYSummit) will provide young people, ages 15-19, with an opportunity to increase awareness around issues affecting youth in their local communities. Over the course of this 3-day event, youth will have seats at tables and say-so about stuff that really matters to them–confidentiality in healthcare, reproductive justice, criminal justice reform, food insecurity, etc. It is Alexis' hope that the skills taught at MYSummit are lifelong skills that will empower the young people to become Mississippi's next generation of advocacy, business, and community leaders.

Alycia is the Director of Policy and Advocacy for the Texas Center for Justice and Equity. Alycia leads the organization’s policy research and advocacy aimed at upending systems of oppression and building an infrastructure of support. She works with individuals, families, and community groups with lived experience in the criminal punishment system – elevating their perspectives and needs to shape more just public policy. Alycia previously worked as an educator, specializing in positive-based learning interventions for students with learning disabilities. She studied Social Work at Texas State University and brings a trauma-informed perspective to her analysis of the intersecting factors that drive system involvement. She currently serves as a member of the Harris County JDAI Collaborative Steering/Executive Committee, and as an Advisory Council Member for the Change Happens VOICES Program. 

Advocacy Project Summary: Alycia's project will be to launch the Texas Student Leadership Council – a fellowship program with the goal of building leadership skills among system-impacted young people to be able to effectively advocate for positive changes in their schools and communities, moving toward more inclusive and equitable learning environments that lead to greater student success.

Aneesa Khan (she/her) is an Assistant Public Defender with the Maryland Office of the Public Defender's Juvenile Division in Baltimore City, where she specializes in the representation of youth in delinquency proceedings. Prior to that role, she was the National Juvenile Defender Center's 2017-2019 Gault Fellow, where she worked on legal and policy initiatives to improve juvenile defense, including reducing racial and ethnic disparities in the juvenile legal system and fighting against the detention of youth. Through leadership roles on the DC and Maryland National Lawyers Guild chapters, Aneesa engages in movement lawyering, providing assistance to organizers working to end police violence and dismantle systems of oppression. Aneesa received her JD from the University of Baltimore School of Law, where she focused on indigent defense through the Criminal Practice Clinic and Pretrial Justice Clinic, and her BA from American University.
 
Advocacy Project Summary: Aneesa’s project will focus on developing educational and advocacy resources aimed at limiting the number of youth held in secure detention, which are disproportionately Black and Brown youth, through an increased focus on the harms of detention and through the use of data and anecdotal evidence of unlawful incarceration of children.

Cindy is an award-winning children's book author and community advocate. She uses her platform to inspire, encourage, and empower others. She has written over 15 children's books, and most recently published the picture book, "The Day We Visit Daddy In Prison," that tells the story of a young girl and her family who visit her father in prison for the first time. It was written to address the experiences faced by the children in her community (and the other 2.7 million children in the USA) who have incarcerated parents. Her passion to serve and advocate for the youth who experience parental incarceration began in 2019 when she became actively involved at her church's The Temple of Restoration Prison Outreach Ministry.
 
Cindy is the founder of Just A Kid With A Dream Foundation, Inc. whose mission is to promote literacy awareness among the youth; and, support the programmatic activities of local, national, and international organizations who improve the quality of life of youth and their families in marginalized and disenfranchised communities. She serves as a Justice Ambassador for Prison Fellowship; and, contributes her time, skills, and talents to multiple organizations, including Global Kids and the United Nations Association.
 
Cindy earned a B.A. from Barnard College of Columbia University, and is currently in pursuit of her Executive Master's in Public Administration (EMPA) at Baruch's Marxe School of Public and International Affairs. To learn more about her work, visit www.csjmediapublishing.com.
 
Advocacy Project Summary: Cindy’s advocacy project will allow justice-involved youth to cultivate their voices and creative writing skills through literacy workshops, and learn how to recognize and develop their leadership and advocacy skills in order to break the intergenerational cycle of incarceration and recidivism. Their advocacy efforts and published works will be used as tools and resources by stakeholders, policymakers, and community organizers concerning justice-involved youth.

Derrell Frazier is an Experienced Community Organizer & Advocate with a demonstrated history of working in the public & private sector. Championing the needs of young people involved in the system, he has focused his career on Children’s Advocacy, Social Justice and Public Service. Growing up in Baltimore City, He has faced a number of challenges and has a unique understanding how important it is to have adults advocate on behalf of children and the benefit of mentoring. He believes that everyone has a unique gift that only they can offer to the world. His passion is working to provide people with the tools and resources needed in order for them to thrive and identify their gift. His purpose is to develop innovative strategies that will create transformational IMPACT, EMPOWER & SHAPE the next generation of leaders.

Proactive and motivated professional with five years’ experience working for various nonprofit and state organizations, he currently serves as the policy and community engagement manager at The Mental Health Association of Maryland. Prior to this role, he has consulted with many public/private entities such as the Annie E. Casey Foundation Juvenile Justice Strategy Group Youth Advisory Council, Commission to Decriminalize Poverty Youth Group, and Serves on the Governor’s Juvenile Justice State Advisory Council Emerging Leaders Group. Lastly, Derrell works with stakeholders on how to properly engage underrepresented communities and the most vulnerable populations in an authentic way to develop solutions in an equitable way.

Kizzy M. Rogers, LMSW, LSSW, is a Licensed Master's Social Worker who primarily focuses her work on advocacy for delinquent youth.  Kizzy was drawn to this field of work as a result of a traumatic childhood event perpetrated by a delinquent male that resulted in her experiencing partial disability.  Kizzy resiliently overcame her struggles and began to work with troubled youth.  Kizzy has extensive experience of working with children, youth, and families. She began her career working with the community's delinquent youth and later transitioned her work to the Department of Children Services Juvenile Justice Division, to work with delinquent youth in the foster care, dependency and neglect, and juvenile justice court system.  She has studied many treatment modalities to bring healing to those who have experienced traumatic life events. She is a life, long learner inspired by the abundance of opportunities available to broaden and enrich the lives of the children and families she services as well as her own professional development.
 
During Kizzy's tenure with the Department of Children Services, she was instrumental in improving many systems outcomes to improve best practices. She worked to update Juvenile Justice system policies and procedures; she aided Central Office in the creation and development of the Restorative Justice program for youth placed in one of the state's Youth Development Centers, all while serving as the only Certified Restorative Justice Family Service Worker for the Department of Children Services -West Tennessee.   
 
Kizzy has additional expertise in the areas of Grief, Loss and Trauma, Social Emotional Learning Initiatives, Family Systems/Relationships, Positive Parenting, Crisis Intervention, Mindfulness, Response To Intervention, and Juvenile/Restorative Justice. Kizzy excels in her ability to extend behavioral intervention services for youth within the public school system.  She is especially sensitive to the needs of children within the classroom, who've experienced behavioral challenges in the school environment.  As a certified provider for Cognitive Behavioral Intervention for Trauma in Schools (CBITS), she continues to utilize a multidimensional approach to therapy, as she engages her clients, she seeks to explore everyone's biological, psychological, social, and spiritual needs.
 
Advocacy Project Summary: Kizzy’s project is to create a Restorative Justice/Mediation program within the Mid-South community that will assist youth with attaining problem-solving skills, receive counseling for traumatic stress symptoms, community involvement, and solutions for community justice which can occur by youth engaging in community service activities and/or prevention programs. The program will also provide advocacy for justice-involved youth and families to educate individual/s on the justice system and their rights.  As youth and families develop skills, it will aid in seeking to improve communication amongst parent and child interactions.

LaTrisha is a native of Missouri,and a mother of three. At the early age of eleven, her family experienced injustice in the court system with loss of her close uncle. In 2018, the court system tried to take her son. During her fight she began to volunteer, speaking out on her and her family’s experience with the court system. LaTrisha is currently working to educate, engage, and organize leaders around breaking the school-to-prison pipeline.
 
LaTrisha has been working as an organizer with Metropolitan Congregations United (MCU) since March of 2020. LaTrisha shared her experience with the justice system at public meeting held by MCU. As she, continued to share her story in the community, she became even more inspired by the courage of a young man to share his story to advocate for changes to the system.  She began organizing parents through the Family Partners Campaign which launched in 2018, so that parents and families have a voice in the decision-making process of their children. LaTrisha's ultimate goal is to build long-term power of court-involved youth, families, and communities to use their voices to empower one another to become leaders within the community.

Advocacy Project Summary: LaTrisha’s project is to organize 8-10 parents or adults directly impacted by the juvenile or criminal court system to build power with other impacted people, current issues voting rights for people on probation and parole and expungement for youth and adults.

Porsche is first and foremost a mother and community member. Her advocacy began when her oldest daughter was in kindergarten. In looking for the proper support for her daughter's educational needs, she discovered just how crucial it was to stand up for what her daughter needed. Not only was she able to successfully obtain adequate services for her daughter, she soon found herself supporting other friends and family members in similar situations. Porsche holds an associate's degree in Paralegal Studies with an emphasis in Juvenile Law.

Porsche joined TeamChild in 2018 as a Legal Assistant. Her role quickly expanded beyond direct client services. She has learned the value of community input. Her time has been spent cultivating relationships with various community organizations. She has partnered with community organizers through Undoing Institutional Racism to address the impact of traditional non-profits on communities of color. During her time at TeamChild, she has helped transform their culture and policies from being in-equitable and operating under white cultural norms to one that prioritizes anti-racism principles in all areas of its work and atmosphere. Her work has led to closing the pay gap between staff of color and white staff, creating and implementing compensation for lived experience, and improving parity with other similar organizations.

She is currently working in collaboration with South King County Discipline Coalition to elevate the voices of students in King County through listening sessions held in partnership with local school districts to make policy changes that create less harm for youth of color in their districts.     

Throughout Porsche’s life, she has seen firsthand the harm created by the judicial system ranging from youth in foster care to juvenile incarceration. Knowing the importance of community connection and autonomy, she sees the need for the voice of young people to be lifted and prioritized when discussing strategies and outcomes for themselves. Her vision is a place where the community supports youth to have autonomy over their lives resulting in better outcomes for the community as a whole.

Advocacy Project Summary: Porsche’s project is to create a Youth Policy Coalition (YPC) that will design state bills based on feedback collected during listening sessions that will address and reduce the probability of youth becoming juvenile court involved. Youth Policy Coalition will consist of youth from around Washington that have been directly impacted by juvenile incarceration, lack of access to mental health services, foster care and homelessnes.

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