Jennifer Rodriguez

Jennifer Rodriguez is Executive Director of the Youth Law Center, a national legal advocacy organization advancing reforms in foster care and juvenile justice to ensure young people grow up in families and communities where they can thrive. A lawyer with more than 25 years of experience, she leads efforts to translate research, lived experience, and cross-sector collaboration into policy and systems change.

Drawing on her own experience in foster care and the juvenile justice system, Jennifer has championed the integration of youth voice and developmental science into public systems serving children and adolescents. Under her leadership, the Youth Law Center has advanced significant state and national reforms focused on relationships, family connections, education, healthy adolescent development, and alternatives to youth incarceration. For decades, YLC has applied developmental science to child welfare and juvenile justice advocacy, helping drive reforms that reduce reliance on institutional care and incarceration, strengthen family and community connections, expand opportunities for youth voice and belonging, and align public systems with what research tells us young people need to thrive. The Youth Law Center’s current Adolescent Development Project builds on this work through partnerships with leading researchers, youth, families, and practitioners focused on foster care policy and practice change.

Jennifer received her G.E.D from San Jose Job Corps, and her J.D. from the University of California, Davis and is the proud mother of two amazing adolescents.