Misty Oka
Staff Attorney - Southern California
Los Angeles, California
Email Misty
Misty is Root & Rebound’s Staff Attorney for Southern California (Los Angeles). She is embedded on-site at the Anti-Recidivism Coalition (ARC), where she supports the organization’s formerly incarcerated members.
Misty received her Bachelor of Arts, summa cum laude, from the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts in 2010 and her J.D. from Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law in 2021. During law school, Misty was involved with criminal legal system-related direct service and policy projects; the Northwestern Journal of Human Rights; and the Northwestern Prison Education Program, an initiative providing a liberal arts education to incarcerated students. She also worked in the Bluhm Legal Clinic’s Center on Wrongful Convictions and Children and Family Justice Center, representing youth sentenced as adults. During 3L, Misty participated in the James A. Rahl/Owen L. Coon Senior Research Program and wrote an article entitled “Unwarranted: How the Supreme Court’s Ruling in Hudson v. Michigan Paved the Way for the Death of Breonna Taylor and How Social Justice Movements Could Provide the Remedy.” Misty interned for the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office and the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office as a Fair and Just Prosecution Fellow, where she worked on the launch of the Task Force on Ending Girls’ Incarceration in Philadelphia.
Misty previously served as Root & Rebound’s Equal Justice Works Fellow, sponsored by Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP and AT&T. Her project focused on preparing formerly incarcerated parents to reunite with their families and navigate challenges to reentry through direct legal services, legal workshops, and community education.
Misty Oka
Staff Attorney - Southern California
Los Angeles, California
Email Misty
Misty is Root & Rebound’s Staff Attorney for Southern California (Los Angeles). She is embedded on-site at the Anti-Recidivism Coalition (ARC), where she supports the organization’s formerly incarcerated members.
Misty received her Bachelor of Arts, summa cum laude, from the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts in 2010 and her J.D. from Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law in 2021. During law school, Misty was involved with criminal legal system-related direct service and policy projects; the Northwestern Journal of Human Rights; and the Northwestern Prison Education Program, an initiative providing a liberal arts education to incarcerated students. She also worked in the Bluhm Legal Clinic’s Center on Wrongful Convictions and Children and Family Justice Center, representing youth sentenced as adults. During 3L, Misty participated in the James A. Rahl/Owen L. Coon Senior Research Program and wrote an article entitled “Unwarranted: How the Supreme Court’s Ruling in Hudson v. Michigan Paved the Way for the Death of Breonna Taylor and How Social Justice Movements Could Provide the Remedy.” Misty interned for the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office and the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office as a Fair and Just Prosecution Fellow, where she worked on the launch of the Task Force on Ending Girls’ Incarceration in Philadelphia.
Misty previously served as Root & Rebound’s Equal Justice Works Fellow, sponsored by Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP and AT&T. Her project focused on preparing formerly incarcerated parents to reunite with their families and navigate challenges to reentry through direct legal services, legal workshops, and community education.
Why do you come to work at Root & Rebound every day?
To advocate for formerly incarcerated individuals and their families and mitigate the negative impact of a criminal record on family strength and stability. I believe each of us is more than the worst thing we have ever done and more than the worst trauma we have experienced.
“The only person you are destined to be is the person you decide to be.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson
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