Andrea James

Former criminal defense and real estate conveyance attorney and formerly incarcerated advocate. Founder and Executive Director of The National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls and founder of Massachusetts-based Families for Justice as Healing; author of "Upper Bunkies Unite: And Other Thoughts on the Politics of Mass Incarceration" and host of the FreeHer Podcast. Holds a JD from Northeastern University. In 2010 she was sentenced to two years in federal prison for wire fraud and was subsequently disbarred; she has since spent more than 15 years working to end the incarceration of women and girls. Recipient of the 2025 Massachusetts Black Women Attorneys Justice Geraldine Hines Public Service Award, a 2015 Soros Justice Fellowship, and the 2016 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award.