Vera Institute of Justice

Shayna Kessler is the director of Vera's Advancing Universal Representation initiative. She was previously the initiative's associate director for advocacy. Shayna has served as the campaign manager for the Fairness to Freedom Campaign to establish a federally funded right to legal representation for people at risk of deportation. She also leads campaigns and supports legislative and budgetary measures in New York State and nationwide, advocating to increase access to counsel for people at risk of deportation and address the harms of the country's broken immigration system.

Before joining Vera in 2017, Shayna was the associate director of the Workers’ Rights Clinic at the University of Arizona, James E. Rogers College of Law. She began her legal career as a public defender at the Bronx Defenders. Before becoming a lawyer, she worked at the Correctional Association of New York and the Bronx Defenders.

Shayna holds a BA from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and a JD from Brooklyn Law School.