Juvenile Law Center

1800 JFK Blvd
Suite 1900B
Philadelphia, PA 19103
Phone: 215-625-0551
Email: kotto@jlc.org
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About Juvenile Law Center

Juvenile Law Center fights for rights, dignity, equity, and opportunity for youth. We work to reduce the harm of the child welfare and justice systems, limit their reach, and ultimately abolish them so all young people can thrive.

Founded in 1975, Juvenile Law Center was the first nonprofit, public interest law firm for children in the country. As an advocacy organization we now use multiple approaches to accomplish our mission: legal advocacy, policy advocacy. youth-led advocacy, and strategic communications. Our strategies are interconnected. We pair impact litigation with policy advocacy and community organizing to push for lasting and transformative change. Our policy agenda is informed by and often conducted in collaboration with youth, family members, and grassroots partners. Our youth advocacy campaigns respond to legal and policy opportunities in the field. In all our work, we seek out strategic communications opportunities to enhance the work and to shape public opinion. We seek opportunities across the country to work where we can respond to identified needs in the community, build on local partnerships, leverage legislative and legal reform opportunities and create momentum for change.

We strive to ensure that laws, policies, and practices affecting youth advance racial and economic equity and are consistent with children’s unique developmental characteristics and human dignity.

Focus areas: advocacy and organizing, human rights, Nonprofit, public safety

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On the Eve of Its 50th Anniversary, Juvenile Law Center Announces New CEO

The organization announces Riya Saha Shah as its next leader going into its half-century anniversary.

Today, Juvenile Law Center announced the appointment of its next Chief Executive Officer, Riya Saha Shah. She will assume the position in the new year.

“We are thrilled to announce the hire of Riya Saha Shah to serve as Juvenile Law Center’s new Chief Executive Officer as we move into our 50th anniversary,” said Dr. Tami Benton, Juvenile Law Center Board Chair and Psychiatrist-in-Chief and Chair of the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “This appointment comes at a critical juncture for the organization – young people ensnared in the juvenile legal and foster care systems face myriad obstacles. We are fortunate to have a leader of Riya’s caliber whose expertise will ensure that the organization can fight zealously for youth rights at every level.”

Riya began at the organization in 2005 as a Sol and Helen Zubrow Fellow in Children’s Law, moving up the ranks as an attorney and then most recently as Senior Managing Director. She is a widely recognized leader in the field of youth rights and justice. Throughout her career she has engaged in litigation, policy advocacy and amicus efforts to reduce the harm of the juvenile and criminal legal systems as well as the foster care system.

Riya will follow Susan Vivian Mangold, who has served as the organization’s Executive Director and CEO since 2015, following the 40-year leadership of the late Bob Schwartz in 2015. “I am grateful to the board for conducting a national search and thrilled that Riya will be the next CEO. Riya’s passion for the work, nationally recognized expertise, and inclusive leadership style make her the perfect choice to lead this wonderful office. Juvenile Law Center has a special place in my heart, and I am confident that Riya will be a visionary, effective leader.”

Riya is widely published in both academic and non-academic outlets and has written extensively on the harm of juvenile records, collateral consequences, right to counsel, and other issues critical to young people. She has co-authored briefs in cases before the United States Supreme Court such as Jones v. Mississippi and Malvo v. Mathena on the protections required before a court can sentence a teenager to life without parole; and Safford v. Redding, which held a school strip-search unconstitutional.

Additionally, Riya is a national leader and Co-Chair of the Children’s Rights Litigation Committee of the American Bar Association Section of Litigation. She also has served as an advisory member of the ABA Commission on Youth at Risk and Chair of the Philadelphia Bar Association Legal Rights of Children Committee.

Daniel Okonkwo, Juvenile Law Center board member, shared that he was thrilled with the hire.

“I previously served as a founding member and Executive Director for D.C. Lawyers for Youth where I was in the trenches in terms of seeing firsthand the devastating effects system involvement has on children,” said Okonkwo. “Juvenile Law Center is a stalwart national voice for children whose rights are consistently violated. We are always up against a lot when it comes to standing up for these young people, and we need a force of nature to hold the line. Riya is that force of nature and I am overjoyed she will be our new CEO.”

Dr. Tami Benton, Daniel Okonkwo, Sue Mangold and Riya Saha Shah are available for questions and comment.