Caryn York

In December 2021, Caryn York—the Women’s Prison Association’s youngest, first Black woman leader—joined the organization as President and CEO. As the former CEO of Baltimore’s Job Opportunities Task Force (JOTF), she brings over a decade of leadership and experience working with state and local government and community-based organizations in Maryland. In her time at JOTF, her policy successes focused on the decriminalization of poverty and race including, but not limited to pretrial “cash bail” reforms, eliminating punitive driver’s license suspensions, debtors’ prisons and court-mandated fees, and expanding access to criminal record expungement for workers struggling to secure employment with a criminal background. Now, at the helm of WPA, Caryn’s vision is clear: making investments in systems-involved women and their children a societal norm.