Founder and President
Francine is a Clinical Professor Emerita at Boston College Law School where she taught Juvenile Justice and Children’s Rights and Public Policy for over thirty years and where she founded the Juvenile Rights Advocacy Program. She speaks and writes widely about the youth legal system and, in particular, about girls and young women in the legal system. Francine has spoken before Congress and at the White House; served on a U.S. Department of Justice National Advisory Committee on Violence Against Women focusing on children and teens victimized by domestic violence and sexual assault; and as consultant to OJJDP’s National Girls Initiative. Her report, Gender Injustice: System-Level Juvenile Justice Reforms for Girls, provides a comprehensive overview of the needs and pathways of girls into and through the youth legal system and details a developmental approach to current youth legal system reforms. She is also the author of Gender, Justice and Youth Development in the Oxford Handbook of Children and the Law, Juvenile Justice: Advancing Research, Policy and Practice (Wiley & Sons), and “Justice for Girls: Are We Making Progress?” (UCLA Law Review). She regularly consults with national and local foundations and systems on issues related to gender and youth legal systems. She consults with the International Legal Foundation, where she has worked in the West Bank and Myanmar.
Francine is a co-founder of Artistic Noise and, as founder of I Am Why, is incredibly excited about I Am Why’s growth and the power of our young women and gender expansive consultants. She is I Am Why’s photographer and provides research and operations support.
Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the Supreme Court case that overturned Roe v. Wade and the right to abortion, is a full-on attack on women’s autonomy, self-determination and safety—three values that the women of I Am Why hold dear. At I Am Why we begin...
