Laurie Parise

Overview

Laurie Parise is the Executive Director and Founder of Youth Represent. In 2006 she was awarded an Echoing Green Fellowship to start the organization. Previously as an Equal Justice Works Fellow Ms. Parise created and implemented a youth reentry project at the Legal Action Center s National H.I.R.E. Network. Ms. Parise s youth reentry project expanded on the work of H.I.R.E. and addressed the unique employment issues that youth who have been involved in the juvenile or criminal justice system face when they reenter society. Ms. Parise s commitment to work with disenfranchised populations began in 1990 at the Rainforest Foundation where she supported indigenous peoples in their efforts to protect their rights. After eleven years with the organization the last five as its Executive Director Ms. Parise decided to go to law school to develop new skills in order to promote social justice in other segments of society. Ms. Parise is a graduate of Columbia University and Brooklyn Law School where she was awarded an Edward V. Sparer Public Interest Fellowship. She was awarded the first Lexis/Nexis Martindale Hubbell Legal Fellowship for her work in the field received a Union Square Award in recognition of her grass roots activism to support at risk youth in NYC and in 2012 was a Harvard Law School Wasserstein Public Interest Fellow.