AUBREY EDWARDS-LUCE

The Sayra and Neil Meyerhoff Center for Families, Children and the Courts
at the University of Baltimore School of Law

Aubrey Edwards-Luce is the executive director of the Sayra and Neil Meyerhoff Center for Families, Children and the Courts. A social worker turned lawyer, she has more than 15 years of experience working with children and families who were already in or at risk of entering court systems.

Edwards-Luce holds a juris doctor from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law and a master’s degree in social work from the George Warren Brown School of Social Work, where she was a student fellow in the Center for Violence and Injury Prevention. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and psychology from Washington University in St. Louis.

Her direct services experience includes working in an informal juvenile court supervisions program, a restorative justice-based neighborhood accountability program for youth, a victim’s services office and as a guardian ad litem attorney for children in abuse, neglect, guardianship and adoption proceedings in D.C. Superior Court. She later served as a senior policy attorney at the Children’s Law Center in Washington, D.C., before becoming vice president of child welfare and youth justice at First Focus on Children.

In 2020, Edwards-Luce founded the Child Welfare and Racial Equity Collaborative, a national coalition focused on transforming the child welfare system into an anti-racist system that supports children and families in their homes and communities. The collaborative, now a program of the center, brings together federal policy strategists and lived-experience experts from across the country.

She currently serves as a commissioner on the Governor’s Commission on Juvenile Justice Reform and Emerging Best Practices and on the American Bar Association’s Commission on Youth at Risk, among other national roles. Her advocacy has been recognized with an award from the University of Baltimore and an award for outstanding advocacy from the National Association of Counsel for Children.

Outside of her professional work, Edwards-Luce mentors young people who have experienced the foster system, connecting with them through shared advocacy work and keeping her door open to those exploring college, graduate school or law school. She makes a point of prioritizing those who are estranged from their biological or adoptive families. “Sometimes what they need most is encouragement and someone willing to review a cover letter, look over a résumé, or help them imagine new possibilities,” she said. “When they have that support, there is truly no limit to what they can achieve.”