Bryan Stevenson, the executive director of the human-rights organization Equal Justice Initiative, is a widely acclaimed public interest lawyer who has dedicated his career to helping the poor, the incarcerated and the condemned. Under his leadership, Equal Justice Initiative has won major legal challenges such as eliminating excessive and unfair sentencing, exonerating innocent death-row prisoners, confronting abuse of the incarcerated and the mentally ill and aiding children prosecuted as adults.
He led the creation of EJI’s highly acclaimed cultural sites, the Legacy Museum and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, which opened in 2018. His work has won him numerous awards, including more than 40 honorary doctorates, the MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant and the ABA Medal, the American Bar Association’s highest honor.
A graduate of Harvard Law School and Harvard School of Government, Stevenson is the author of the award-winning New York Times best-seller, Just Mercy, which was adapted as a major motion picture.
