Elizabeth Gaynes

Liz Gaynes is Executive Director of the Osborne Association, a 75 year old nonprofit organization in New York City that provides a wide range of educational, employment, treatment and family services to individuals affected by incarceration. Under her leadership over the last 20 years, Osborne has developed and operated programs in community sites in the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens, as well as serveral state prisons, city jails, and courts. Osborne offers job training and placement, parenting and family services, prison and reentry services, and prevention and treatment programs.

Ms. Gaynes is an attorney who began her legal career as a criminal defense attorney in upstate New York. She later became an associate at the Pretrial Services Resource Center in Washington DC, which provides technical assistance to jurisdictions around around the country seeking to reduce their jail populations and develop alternatives to jail and prison.

Elizabeth Gaynes in the Chair of the Board of Directiors of OPEN Children, an Ethopia-based children's charity, and is on the Board of Directors of Families and Corrections Network. She was nominated with her daughter for the 2004 World's Children Prize for the Rights of the Child, the first American ever nominated for the prestigious international prize, for their work defending the rights of children with parents in prison.