Katherine DiPiero

Katie DiPiero (she/her/hers) earned her Master’s in Social Work and Social Policy from the University of Chicago, where she concentrated in the Transforming Justice Program of Study. While earning her degree, she interned at the Illinois Juvenile Justice Commission and the Bluhm Legal Clinic at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law. There, she worked with the Center on Wrongful Convictions, supporting clients through individual counseling and by writing clemency petitions and reentry plans. She also supported the work of the Final 5 Campaign, an effort to close the five remaining youth prisons in Illinois. Before graduate school, Katie worked for five years at a school in Englewood and another five years at Chicago Jesuit Academy, where she supported a caseload of alumni from 14-26 years old through academic transitions, court-based advocacy, career counseling, responses to community violence, and offered trauma-informed support. Katie co-leads the local chapter of Abolition Apostles and volunteers with the Envision Freedom Fund. She holds a Bachelor Degree in Psychology from Saint Mary’s College in South Bend, Indiana, and currently holds her LMSW in the state of New York.