Youth justice: there's more to the story.

About

Report for Youth Justice was founded by Liz Ryan, one of the nation's leading voices on youth justice, with more than 30 years of experience changing how America treats young people in the justice system.

Liz Ryan

Liz served as Administrator of the U.S. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), appointed by President Biden in 2022 — the federal government's top position on juvenile justice. Before that, she founded and led two national campaigns: the Youth First Initiative, to end youth incarceration and direct resources to community-based alternatives, and the Campaign for Youth Justice, to end the prosecution of youth in adult court.

Liz has spent her career at the intersection of youth justice and journalism — serving as an expert source for national media, writing extensively on juvenile justice, and working as an investigative journalist with the LSU Cold Case Project on civil rights-era injustices.

Liz currently serves as the Stanley S. Nelson Distinguished Practitioner for Justice Reporting & Communications at Louisiana State University. In that role, she engages Louisiana journalism students as well as reporters across the country in covering youth justice issues and the juvenile justice system, and helps run the LSU Cold Case Project field experience class investigating civil rights-era murder cases. Together with her colleague Janet Chiancone, Liz launched Read for Youth Justice, a resource curated in partnership with youth justice stakeholders and libraries to elevate books, narratives, and voices that reflect the realities of youths' experiences in the justice system.

She founded Report for Youth Justice because she has seen firsthand how news coverage shapes public perception and public policy — and how much better both can be when young people are heard.