Laurie Lola Vollen

Laurie Lola Vollen is a scholar and human rights activist. She specializes in the repercussions of large-scale human rights abuses.

Background

Vollen graduated from Princeton in 1978 as a psychology major.[1]

Vollen began her career as a doctor in private practice.[1] She then directed Arizona State University's health center.[1]

In 1992, Vollen spent a three-week vacation organizing a vaccination program for children in Somalia with Save the Children.[1][2] That experience convinced her that she needed to change her focus to do more public service.[1]

Beginning in 1996, Vollen spent four years working in Bosnia with Physicians for Human Rights.[1][2]

Vollen founded the Center for Communities Emerging from Injustice (CCEI), a Berkeley-based non-profit that addresses how communities can deal with injustice and human-rights abuses. CCEI pursues DNA identification after ethnic cleansing and genocide to help families find closure.[1]

In 2003, Vollen co-founded the Life After Exoneration Program, which helps exonerated prisoners find jobs and housing and access counseling and medical care.[1][2] Vollen has noted that prison is “physically and psychologically abusive.”[1]

Vollen conducted an International Commission of Jurists-sponsored assessment of the Jenin Refugee Camp in the after the Israeli Defense Force's April 2002 incursion.[2]

Along with her human rights activism, Vollen practices medicine once a week and directs the DNA Identification Technology and Human Rights Center at the University of California, Berkeley, where she is a visiting scholar.[1][2] She is a member of both the Council for Responsible Genetics (CRG) and Voice of Witness boards of directors.[2] Vollen is a co-editor of two of the books in the Voice of Witness series, which gives a voice to those afflicted by contemporary social injustice.[3]

Publications

Surviving Justice: America's Wrongfully Convicted and Exonerated. Voice of Witness series.

Voices from the Storm: The People of New Orleans on Hurricane Katrina and Its Aftermath. Voice of Witness series.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "Princeton Alumni Spotlight: A thirst for justice". Princeton Alumni Web. April 6, 2005.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Board of Directors". Council for Responsible Genetics. Accessed June 30, 2009.
  3. ↑ "Voice of Witness website". Accessed July 1, 2009.
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