Fiza Quraishi,who just graduated from University of Michigan Law School in May, will join NCYL as an Equal Justice Works Fellow in the fall.  Fiza will provide direct representation for foster youth with unmet mental health needs, train youth advocates on mental health law, and work with other child advocates in California to develop ways to increase clients’ access to mental health care. 

Fiza received a BA in political science and religion from Barnard College in New York and has spent the past 10 years working on behalf of at-risk and foster children. Prior to law school, she worked at the Vera Institute of Justice in New York, an organization focused on justice system reform, and later directed the Red Hook Youth Court, a delinquency prevention program in Brooklyn. Fiza spent the summer after her first year of law school working on education equity issues at the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund. During her second summer, she clerked at NCYL, working on child welfare litigation. During law school, Fiza was involved in the Child Advocacy Law Clinic and helped create Legal Advocates for Youth, a student organization that provides community for law students interested in youth-related legal work.

Fiza was recently awarded the 2007 Jane L. Mixer Memorial Award for promoting social justice in the law.