Alejo Rodriguez Columbia Law School

Alejo Rodriguez is the Director of Strategic Initiatives for the Center Institutional and Social Change, Lead Developer and Lecturer of Law of Breakthrough in Abolition Through Transformative Learning Exchange (BATTLE) at Columbia Law School, and a teacher of Punishment, Prisons and Global (In)justice at The New School. A public speaker, teaching artist, poet and author of Obscure Legacy of Mass Incarceration: Parole Board Abuse of Parole Eligible Lifers, Alejo is a social justice activist for dismantling the prison-industrial complex and structural racism. Alejo is a leader in building participatory collaborations through skill based learning exchanges between law school students and individuals who have direct lived experience with incarceration. Alejo is a Research Consultant for MDRC’s Council of Lived Experience Advisors and also serves as an executive board member for the Parole Preparation Project and Gideon’s Promise. Alejo holds a BA from Syracuse University and a MPS from New York Theological Seminary.