Alexis Roman

Alexis Roman serves as Research Institute Lead at the Young Women's Freedom Center, where she develops the backbone infrastructure for piloting youth justice work and trains youth on conducting research to drive policy and systems change. She joined the organization five years ago as a programs coordinator supporting young mothers and caregivers impacted by the justice system on a youth participatory action research project, later advancing to county director before her recent transition to the research institute. Alexis holds an undergraduate degree in education, democracy, and justice, and legal studies from the University of Santa Cruz, and has pursued additional training through community engagement certifications, restorative practices, trauma-informed care, data and analytics courses, and fellowships. In 2022, she led the launch of a Youth Participatory Action Research pilot that secured an additional $800,000 in county funding and co-authored a research report uplifting community voices. She is currently exploring graduate programs in psychology or sociology focused on economic empowerment models such as guaranteed basic income for justice-impacted communities.