Vera Institute of Justice

Jac was an editorial assistant for Vera’s Communications & External Affairs team. They earned their BA in comparative literature from Barnard College, where they worked as a peer editor in their role as writing fellow. Their professional experience and engagement has focused on dismantling mass incarceration and effecting change in the criminal legal system. Prior to Vera, they worked as an intern for various organizations in the legal, nonprofit, and prison education fields. At the Osborne Association in NYC, they served as a court advocacy intern to secure alternatives to incarceration for people; in England, they joined an initiative, Learning Together, that builds learning communities between prisons and universities; and in Hawaiʻi, where they were raised, they have researched the disproportionate impact of incarceration on Native Hawaiians, worked for a community conversations program within the Hawaiʻi Council for the Humanities hosted both inside and outside of prisons, and served as a judicial extern.