Laura Alvarez

Laura Alvarez is the Senior Program Associate on the Immigration team at the National Center for Youth Law. Laura's work focuses on supporting advocacy efforts for children in federal immigration detention through data analysis, grant reporting, drafting and designing publications, site visit coordination, and more.

Laura has more than six years of experience supporting and advocating for immigrant communities, serving at organizations such as Kids in Need of Defense (KIND), Worldwide Orphans, and First Friends of New Jersey and New York. She received her bachelor's in social work and a minor in political science from Seton Hall University, and a master's of social work with a concentration in international social welfare and services to immigrants and refugees from Columbia University. 
 
Born in Colombia and raised in New Jersey, Laura is new to California and the Bay Area. She enjoys going on walks, finding new restaurants, reading, puzzles, and listening to different genres of music. She speaks Spanish and English and hopes to learn more languages.