Vera Institute of Justice

Mahsa Jafarian was a program manager for Vera’s Ending Girls’ Incarceration (EGI) initiative, which aims to zero out the incarceration of girls and gender-expansive youth. Mahsa led EGI’s work across jurisdictions, including managing its first site and co-developing its national curriculum. Before focusing on the intersection of gender and youth justice, Mahsa provided technical assistance to states and localities to end young people’s court involvement and incarceration on status offenses.

Mahsa joined Vera in 2015 with a background in direct service with young people. She designed and directed an after-school program for middle and high school students in Brooklyn and worked in a juvenile detention and placement center in Vermont. She also previously worked for the New Orleans Mayor’s Office developing strategies to reduce the city’s jail population.

Mahsa holds a bachelor’s degree in teaching, psychology, and gender studies from Middlebury College and an MPP from the Ford School at the University of Michigan.