LAURIE PARISE
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AND FOUNDER
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. The mission of the H.I.R.E Network is to provide leadership on key public policy initiatives to promote the employment of people with criminal histories. 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, who often face unparalleled discrimination, 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 earned an Edward V. Sparer Public Interest Fellowship Award. In August 2005, she was awarded the first Lexis/Nexis Martindale Hubbell Legal Fellowship for her work in the field. In 2008 she received a Union Square Award in recognition of her grass roots activism to support at-risk youth in NYC. Ms. Parise is also a member of the Citizens’ Committee for Children - Advocacy Committee, Department of Youth and Community Development Interagency Coordinating Council on Youth, and the Brennan Center for Justice Community Oriented Defender Network.

ALISON WILKEY
SENIOR STAFF ATTORNEY

Alison Wilkey joined Youth Represent as a senior staff attorney in 2008. Ms. Wilkey provides legal representation in criminal court, housing hearings, and educational and employment matters, in addition to supervising the Community Youth Reentry Project and Youth Represent’s legal interns. Prior to joining Youth Represent in 2008, she worked as a staff attorney at the Criminal Defense Practice of the Legal Aid Society in Manhattan for four years.

Ms. Wilkey is the Co-Chair of the Criminal Justice Section of the New York County Lawyers’ Association and also serves on the Corrections Committee of the New York City Bar Association. Ms. Wilkey is a graduate of Columbia Law School, where she was a Charles Evans Hughes Human Rights Fellow, a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar, and was awarded the Jerome Michael Jury Cup. While at Columbia, she worked in the Prisoners and Families Clinic and worked as a legal intern at the Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem, the Center for Appellate Litigation, and the Legal Action Center.