Bryan Stevenson, Angel Rodriguez, and the duo of Elizabeth Scott & Laurence Steinberg are the winners for the prestigious award
Philadelphia, PA (December 18, 2023) – Today Juvenile Law Center announced the winners of 2024 Leadership Prize – Bryan Stevenson, Angel Rodriguez, and Elizabeth Scott & Laurence Steinberg. The advocacy organization’s annual Leadership Prize is awarded to outstanding individuals working in any field – law, government, the arts, media, entertainment, sports, business, or any other sector – who are fighting for the rights and well-being of youth in the child welfare and justice systems. Awardees have achieved lasting change either through a lifetime of work on behalf of youth, a landmark contribution to the field of children’s rights, or exceptional efforts to shine a light on the most important issues affecting youth today.
Read more about the winners here.
“We are thrilled to announce the winners of our 2024 Leadership Prize,” said Sue Mangold, CEO of Juvenile Law Center. “Together, they represent the scope of our work and the areas that remain so central to our mission. Elizabeth Scott and Laurence Steinberg are pioneers in applying adolescent developmental science to the justice system and their collaboration has led to key advances in our work. Angel Rodriguez’s vision and lifetime of work has given our field a model for engagement and community to support young people and avoid the harms of the justice system. Bryan Stevenson’s work on Graham v. Florida and Miller v. Alabama and his tremendous efforts to change the narrative about the lives of those impacted by the justice system is truly remarkable. All are leading lights and I cannot wait to celebrate them and our work on May 8th.”
“Our young people need opportunity and support to accomplish their goals,” said Angel Rodriguez. “I co-founded Avenue for Justice (AFJ) 45 years ago to provide this support in a manner that’s rooted in community, respect, and a belief in their abilities. AFJ supports our Participants in court, in our programs, and with employment and education. When anyone visits Avenues for Justice, they almost always say the same thing – this feels like family. Most importantly, we hear the same from our Participants. They know we are all committed to providing them with a path forward to success. While we’ve come a long way since we were founded in the Lower East Side, we have so much more to do. More young people to serve in our city, more second chances that we hope to provide them with, and more lives to enrich.”
“It is difficult to express how honored I am to receive the Juvenile Law Center Leadership Prize and to share the prize with my long-time colleague Laurence Steinberg for our work applying developmental research to youth justice policy,” said Elizabeth Scott. “No organization has done more to effectively deploy this research to promote the well-being of youth in the justice system than Juvenile Law Center.”
“Juvenile Law Center has been a source of inspiration for my work for the past 25 years,” said Laurence Steinberg. “I’m honored to share this year’s Leadership Prize with my longtime friend and collaborator, Elizabeth Scott, and humbled to be recognized in the company of such luminaries as Angel Rodriguez and Bryan Stevenson.”
The organization will host an in-person celebration with the winners in Philadelphia on May 8th, 2024.
Recipients of the Leadership Prize are leading lights whose inspirational careers are beacons for future generations and whose work has substantially improved the lives of youth. The inaugural recipient, Juvenile Law Center Co-Founder Robert Schwartz, not only brought Juvenile Law Center to national and international prominence over the course of his 40 years of leadership, he also helped develop the nascent field of children’s law, inspiring thousands of children’s rights advocates working nationwide. Today, Juvenile Law Center is recognized both nationally and internationally for its expertise as a trailblazer in the field of children’s rights la
Sue Mangold and 2024 Leadership Prize winners are available for questions and comment.
