Jessica Ryckman

Jessica Ryckman is the Director of Fellowships at Equal Justice Works. She brings more than a decade of experience in access to justice and rule of law programming around the world, as well as extensive knowledge of nonprofit management and operations.

Previously, Jessica served as Deputy Director at Lawyers Without Borders. In that role, she designed and oversaw high-impact programs funded by the U.S., foreign governments, and private funders. The projects spanned four continents and a range of topics, including combatting human trafficking, child labor, and wildlife trafficking, fighting transnational organized crime, promoting fundamental human rights including the rights of women and marginalized groups, and more. She also worked closely with local leaders and stakeholders to ensure demand-driven programming and managed a network of more than 10,000+ lawyers, judges, and other volunteers supplying expertise to Lawyers Without Borders projects. Key impacts of these projects include improved and aligned child labor legislation and regulation in five countries, the creation of the first-ever prosecutor training institute in Africa, the launch of digital case management in Kenya, and the first prosecution for human trafficking in Liberia, among other achievements.

Prior to her time at Lawyers Without Borders, Jessica was an associate attorney at Wilmer, Cutler, Pickering, Hale, and Dorr LLP in Washington, D.C., where she worked on education, public policy, congressional, voting rights, and national security matters. She also served as an adjunct professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law, where she taught National Security Law and Policy.

Jessica has a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, an M.Ed. in Education Policy from Harvard University, and a B.S in Biomedical Engineering and a B.S. in Political Science from the University of Michigan. She is admitted to practice law in the District of Columbia and Virginia, and she sits on the board of both Lawyers Without Borders Kenya and Lawyers Without Borders Tanzania.

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