I'm Alison McCrary, a Georgia-born, New Orleans-based political, cultural & spiritual worker.

 

I serve our communities as a social justice lawyer, campaign strategist, interfaith organizer, mediator, and transformative justice practitioner. As an internationally sought-after speaker on justice, spirituality, and liberation, I love sharing stories from the frontlines to inspire people and their gifts to make our world a more loving place.

 

While my life growing up in the rural U.S. South was not easy, I have had the privilege of spending my adult career at the intersection of justice and spirituality. It’s been an honor to serve our social movements as a team builder, a creative systems thinker, a strategist for organizations experiencing challenges, and an expert networker who nurtures values-based community leadership.

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As a carceral system-impacted person growing up (with a dad who was mentally ill and later died of suicide), I've devoted much of my life to learning how we can heal from trauma and how we can repair harm. This spiritual journey led to my law career and focus on criminal justice reform. One of the core parts of my work is serving as a Spiritual Advisor on Louisiana’s Death Row (learn more about this ministry at patreon.com/alisonmccrary).

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After serving as a Catholic nun for twelve years, I stay active at my parish, St. Augustine Catholic Church, and enjoy creating rituals to help others experience the sacred in their lives. I’m also an enrolled citizen of the Ani-Yun-Wiya Cherokee Nation and am active with the Bvlbancha Intertribal Community in New Orleans. My spirituality shapes all the work I do!

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My work spans issues of criminal justice reform, environmental justice, human rights, cultural preservation, disaster recovery, and voting, housing, and immigration rights. I provide legal, strategic, and spiritual support to social justice initiatives locally and worldwide.

In my movement work, I have served as:
 

• Founding Director, ReEntry Mediation Institute of Louisiana

• Executive Director, National Police Accountability Project

• President, LA Chapter, National Lawyers Guild

• Founding Director, New Orleans Community-Police Mediation Program.

• Movement Capacity-Building Strategist—supported 50 nonprofits led by formerly incarcerated people.

• Statewide Campaign Manager, Unanimous Jury Coalition—abolished a 138-year-old Jim Crow law.

• Lawyer, Capital Post-Conviction Project of Louisiana—providing litigation support on death penalty cases and monitoring the implementation of U.N. Security Council Resolutions.
   

It’s been an honor to receive the following fellowships:

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• OnBeing Social Healing Fellowship (2023)

• WKKF Kellogg Community Leadership Network Fellowship (2023)

• WindCall Residency Fellow (2022)

• Association for Public Religion and Intellectual Life Fellow (2022)

• Encore Public Voices Fellow (2020)

• Adese Spiritual Entrepreneurship Fellow (2020)

• Propeller Social Entrepreneurship Accelerator Fellow (2020)

• Better Selves Fellow (2018)

• Soros Justice Advocacy Fellow (2010)——changed policing practices to transform relationships between police and New Orleans’ indigenous culture bearers.

• Ella Baker Fellow, Center for Constitutional Rights (2009)—working on international human rights accountability related to Guantanamo Bay.  
   

It’s also been a true privilege to be recognized for my work in many ways, including:
 

• Innocence Project of New Orleans Annual Gala Honoree (2019)

• Purple Feather Award from the New Orleans Mardi Gras Indian Hall of Fame recipient (2018)

• National Catholic Reporter’s 12 Women Under 40 Making Change Award recipient (2012)

• Legal Eagle Award recipient from the New Orleans Mardi Gras Indian Hall of Fame (2011)

• Pedro Arrupe SJ Award for Social Justice (2010)

• LA State Bar Foundation Pro Bono Award (2009)

• Gillis Long Poverty Law Center Public Service Award (2009)
   

Thank you for reading about me! I'm always looking to connect with others on the path of social justice. Feel free to get in touch through email or social media. May we all find the spiritual practices and communities that ground us, nurture us, heal us, and nudge us to grow as we work to leave this world better than we found it.