Biography
Alisa Blair is the policy and special projects director at The Community Based Public Safety Collective where she develops programs to support violence interruption through community involvement and non-profit organizations. Alisa began her legal career as public defender in Los Angeles County. Her successes were instrumental in Alisa receiving the Judi Schecter Juvenile Lawyer of the Year award.
Alisa Blair attended the University of California, Berkeley for undergrad and went on to attend the University of Southern California school of law where she earned her Juris Doctorate and the Miller-Johnson Equal Justice Award. Ms. Blair co-authored Race and Ethnicity as a Compound Risk Factor in Police Interrogation of Youth, as well as A Guide to Cash Bail, published in Chaos + Comrades.
Alisa Blair frequently provides guest lectures at California universities on youth justice issues and the interplay between racial trauma and the adolescent brain. Ms. Blair was a speaker at the NACDL Conference, RACE MATTERS II, on Race & Adolescent Brain Development. Alisa Blair was instrumental in drafting and implementing Los Angeles County DA, George Gascon’s, youth justice policies as his youth justice policy advisor.
Currently Alisa Blair lectures at University of California, Irvine’s law school on Criminal Procedure and Racial Justice in a course entitled, “Finding Freedom: Racial Justice in the Criminal Legal System.” Alisa Blair has the unique experience of practicing law as a defender and crafting policy for a prosecuting agency and nonprofit organizations.
