Melissa Adamson

Melissa Adamson is an attorney on NCYL’s Immigration and Legal Advocacy teams. Adamson works on immigrant youth issues, including litigation on behalf of detained unaccompanied minors and policy work on behalf of immigrant youth in the juvenile justice and child welfare systems. As a Berkeley Public Interest Fellow at NCYL, Adamson focused on adolescent health, reproductive rights for foster youth, and consent and confidentiality law.

Adamson earned her J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, where she represented youth in delinquency proceedings and expulsion hearings through the Education Defense and Justice for Youth Clinic at the East Bay Community Law Center and interned at Legal Services for Children and the Bay Area Legal Aid San Francisco Medical-Legal Partnership. She received her B.A. from Tufts University, where she majored in International Relations and Community Health. Prior to becoming a lawyer, Adamson directed the Hospital Outreach Program at The Painted Turtle Camp in Los Angeles, supported adults and children with disabilities in Saint Louis, and worked with SeriousFun Children’s Network to open the first medical camp for children living with HIV in Botswana.