Kiara serves as the Equal Justice Works AmeriCorps Legal Fellow, working to remove re-entry barriers to employment and housing through expungements, pardons, and license reinstatements throughout the state. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in sociology and a Master of Science in sociology from Mississippi State University. While working as a graduate research assistant under Dr. Melvin Ray at the MSU Office of Research and Economic Development, Kiara’s research was heavily focused on the socioeconomic issues affecting poor and minority children and families in Mississippi, which caused her to realize the need for lawyers committed to social and economic justice in her home state. She received her Juris Doctorate and graduate degree of comparative law from Paul M. Hebert Law Center at Louisiana State University. While in law school, she devoted her spare time to public interest law, serving as the pro bono co-chair of the school’s Public Interest Law Society and volunteering at the Baton Rouge Family Court Pro Se Help Desk. During her summer and winter breaks, she interned at the Mississippi Center for Justice, conducting legal research and helping with the Fair Housing Campaign. Kiara was also selected to participate in a first-of-its-kind law school clinic, where she and three other students were trained to assess the special legal needs of and authorized to provide legal representation for survivors of sexual assault under the supervision of Baton Rouge STAR Legal Director Morgan Lamandre. Kiara plans to focus most of her career on civil rights and social/economic justice in the South.