Darya Larizadeh

Darya Larizadeh is a Policy Attorney with the National Center for Youth Law’s California Youth Justice Initiative. Her work is focused on reducing the incarceration and justice system involvement of youth as well as increasing their access to developmentally appropriate services and supports in the community. Larizadeh’s policy reform work began at the Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Law and Social Policy at U.C. Berkeley where she co-authored a report documenting wrongful convictions in California and performed an evaluation of LA County’s juvenile defense system. Larizadeh began her career as an attorney at the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office and later worked on cases through the Private Defender Panel.

Larizadeh brings a background in education and women’s rights to her work. She spent eight years working in various educational settings with children with disabilities, first generation college students, and youth from immigrant families. She served as a Commissioner on the San Mateo County Commission on the Status of Women and also worked abroad in Haiti and India documenting human rights violations and advocating for governments to include women’s voices in decision-making. Larizadeh received her J.D. from the University of San Francisco School of Law. She holds a M.A. in political science from the City University of New York, Graduate Center and received her B.A. in politics from the University of California, Santa Cruz.