Vera Institute of Justice

Corey Lazar was a senior program associate with the SAFE Cities Network in the Center on Immigration and Justice (CIJ) at Vera. Prior to joining Vera, Corey served for nearly nine years with the Department of Justice, Executive Office for Immigration Review, in various positions. Corey started at the Department of Justice as a judicial law clerk at the New York Immigration Court through the Attorney General's Honors Program. She then moved to the Board of Immigration Appeals, where she drafted decisions on appeals from the nation's immigration courts. As assistant program director for the Office of Legal Access Programs, Corey worked alongside Vera’s Legal Orientation Program staff (LOP) managing the program in detention centers around the country. During law school, Corey was one of the first recipients of the HOPE Public Interest Fellowship, supporting her work with recently resettled refugees and detained immigrants facing deportation proceedings. Corey received her BA from Georgetown University in 2002 and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Miami School of Law in 2008. Between college and law school, Corey worked at the Red Hook Community Justice Center, in Brooklyn, NY, assisting in the administration of the community court's programming designed to decrease incarceration rates and increase community trust in the justice system.