Leigh-Anna is a dedicated advocate for foster care reform. Entering foster care in her native San Francisco Bay Area at age 17 and aging out at 21, she has overcome significant challenges. Leigh-Anna is passionate about uplifting system-impacted youth out of cycles of poverty upon release from juvenile justice, foster care, and immigrant detention systems. Graduating summa cum laude with two bachelor’s degrees from The New School in 2021, she now works full-time as a paralegal at a nonprofit, preventing evictions for low-income tenants in New York City. Additionally, Leigh-Anna attends the City University of New York (CUNY) School of Law in the evenings, where she also works as a student attorney in the Immigrant and Noncitizen Rights Clinic. Upon finishing law school next year, she hopes to practice immigration law, offering direct legal services to unaccompanied minors seeking asylum in the United States.

Leigh-Anna believes that youth voices and experiences are the key to meaningful foster care reform. Thus, Leigh-Anna channels her passion into NFYI, focusing on educating youth on their rights while in care and holding child welfare agencies accountable for upholding those rights. Outside of NFYI, she sits on CASA-NYC’s Youth Advisory Board as the Children’s Rights Legislative Liaison to support policies that reform mandated reporting in New York State. Leigh-Anna also serves as a Volunteer Child Advocate at The Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights, providing support and companionship for unaccompanied migrant youth awaiting sponsorship in Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) custody.

Beyond her advocacy work, Leigh-Anna enjoys dancing, traveling, yoga, pilates, baking, reading, and spending quality time with her loved ones. Through the Congressional Leadership Academy, she hopes to learn how to leverage her privilege to create meaningful change and take those skills back to her community of current and former foster youth to mobilize them into collective action.