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Grace Hennessey McMickens was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York before moving to Portland, Oregon to attend Lewis & Clark College where she majored in Sociology & Anthropology and minored in Gender Studies. She graduated in 2019 after completing a thesis entitled “Good Mothers & Others: Policing Marginalized Motherhoods in the Carceral State”. Through this research, Grace began volunteering with Girl Scouts Beyond Bars which provides transportation for girls whose mothers, grandmothers, and aunts are incarcerated in Coffee Creek Correctional Facility. She is a member of Liberation Literacy, a reading group and advocacy network based in Columbia River Correctional Institution in North East Portland. Since 2016 Grace has worked closely with the grassroots organization Brown Girl Rise. As a volunteer, board member, and now program coordinator for BGR, she has developed a fierce commitment to youth and family advocacy especially for youth living in the intersections of multiple marginalized identities.
Updated May 2020
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