Stacey Strongarone joined Vera in September 2006 to work on the Legal Orientation Program, an innovative effort to inform immigrant detainees about their rights, immigration court, and the detention process. Stacey also was director of Vera's Unaccompanied Children Program, a national initiative to increase access to legal information and representation for unaccompanied children facing removal (deportation). Before coming to Vera, Stacey worked as a senior project director at New York University's Center for Community Problem Solving on prison- and community-based education projects related to criminal justice and reentry, immigrant health, and economic development. Before law school, Stacey was a Jesuit Volunteer legal assistant at San Francisco’s La Raza Centro Legal, helping pro se individuals with housing and youth law matters. Stacey received her BA from the College of the Holy Cross and JD from New York University School of Law.