Rena Karefa-Johnson (she/her)

Advisory Board Member

Rena is an attorney, organizer and campaigner dedicated to dismantling systems of state violence and white supremacy.

As Vice President of National Initiatives at FWD.us, Rena leads political and narrative campaigns to reform our criminal legal and immigration systems. Prior to this role, she organized women with incarcerated loved ones towards transformative, abolitionist policy campaigns as the Director of Campaigns and Advocacy at Essie Justice Group. Rena began her career as a juvenile public defender and reentry attorney representing incarcerated and formerly incarcerated New York City youth in criminal and family court as well as in eviction and licensing hearings.

She has worked on campaigns across the country to end pretrial detention, written testimony for the United State Commission on Human Rights and co-authored the ‘Lives on the Line: Women with Incarcerated Loved Ones and the Impact of COVID-19 Behind Bars’ report. Her analysis on the American criminal legal system has been featured in NPR, MSNBC, Teen Vogue, Rolling Stone, The Intercept and The Appeal. She is a former board member of ACLU Southern California and a current board member of the Arts for Healing & Justice Network.

Rena received her undergraduate degree in African-American Studies from Yale University and her JD from Harvard Law School.