Co-Deputy Director, Organizational Strategy

Roxanne Lawson (she/her) has worked previously as a strategist, trainer, community organizer, global justice advocate, lobbyist, and policy analyst. She is the former Co-Executive Director of Youth Rise Texas, an organization that worked with youth system impacted youth. Prior to that, she was their Director of Programs at Rethink New Orleans where she supported young people training peers in community organizing and participatory defense. In the early 2000s, she worked as the Director of Africa Policy at TransAfrica Forum transforming U.S. Foreign Policy to create political, economic, and cultural sovereignty for African people in seven nations. Prior to that, Ms. Lawson was an International Policy Campaigner for Friends for Earth-US, promoting community rights related to natural resources and the environment on the African continent.


She also worked for the American Friends Service Committee as the National Liaison to United for Peace and Justice, Stop the Free Trade Area of the Americas Coalition, and as the National Coordinator of their Life Over Debt Campaign to cancel the illegitimate debt of African nations. She was the first staffer for the National Youth and Student Peace Coalition (NYSPC) and a founding member of United for Peace and Justice. As a trained media analyst, she was a featured commentator on National Public Radio’s News and Notes with Farai Chideya and as a spokesperson for print, television, and radio outlets including PBS’s NewsHour with Jim Lerher, BBC World News, Al-Jazeera, and Voice of America.