Alissa has been directly impacted since her youth, having served over 25 years in the carceral system on a 15-to-life sentence handed down as a juvenile. Alissa used this lived experience to develop a revolutionary working standard for presenting at Board of Parole Hearings (BPH). Prior to LSPC, she worked at the Earth Island Institute under the banner of Greenlife, where her primary focus was developing and implementing curriculums designed specifically to work directly for and with formerly incarcerated peoples, specializing in re-entry navigation and assistance. 

Alissa first applied for a Communications role at LSPC, but instead joined as a Ronald “Elder” Freeman Policy Fellow in 20xx. Fueled by her passion as a writer but lack of publication to show for it, Alissa has been a significant contributor to the AOUON Newspaper and played a pivotal role in helping to launch the Carceral Studies Journalism Guild in partnership with the Harvard Institute on Policing, Incarceration, & Public Safety (IPIPS) and the Yale Institute on Incarceration and Public Safety (YIIPS).

where she has since deepened her commitment to ending inhumane conditions of confinement with an emphasis on the environmental impacts of incarceration on incarcerated people. She has helped author and secure various legislative successes, including AB1810 and SB1254, which passed in 2024. In 2025, Alissa received a Freshy Award in recognition of her fight to secure food justice for formerly incarcerated people, and welcomed a new baby with her life partner.