Brooke Harris

Executive Director

Brooke Harris (she/her) joined PJDC in 2022 as the organization’s inaugural Executive Director. Brooke has over 14 years of experience in the criminal and juvenile justice field. Prior to joining PJDC, she was the Director of the Juvenile Justice Clinic and Visiting Clinical Faculty at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. At Loyola, Brooke taught Juvenile Delinquency Law and Procedure and Advanced Criminal Litigation Skills, in addition to supervising clinical law students representing youth in delinquency court in Los Angeles County. Prior to that, she served as a public defender in Contra Costa County for five years and held a fellowship in Post-Disposition Reentry with the Gault Center, focusing on the civil legal needs of youth returning to the community after a local or state commitment in a juvenile facility.

Brooke is a Commissioner with the Los Angeles County Probation Oversight Commission, and also serves as the Co-Chair of the Youth Justice Committee of the California Child Welfare Council. Brooke also serves as faculty with the Independent Forensic Gang Expert College, a project of the Center of Juvenile Law and Policy at Loyola Law School that trains formerly gang involved people to become gang experts in court. Brooke has trained attorneys in California and nationally on issues including racial justice, youth gang involvement and detention advocacy. From 2018-2020, she served on the Executive Steering Committee with the Board of State and Community Corrections for the Youth Reinvestment Grant. Brooke is a certified juvenile law trainer with the Gault Center. She earned her B.A. from Colby College and JD from UC Davis School of Law (King Hall). Brooke lives in Los Angeles with her wife and toddler son.