Jessica Ryckman

Jessica Ryckman, J.D./M.Ed., returned to LWOB to serve as Executive Director in December 2024. Previously, Jessica served as Deputy Director at Lawyers Without Borders, in which capacity she partnered with national governments, corporations, and individuals around the world to design and implement high-impact programming advancing the rule of law. She also worked closely with local leaders and stakeholders to ensure demand-driven programming and managed a network of more than 10,000+ lawyers, judges, and other volunteers supplying expertise to Lawyers Without Borders projects. Prior to her time at Lawyers Without Borders, Jessica served as the Director of Fellowships at Equal Justice Works and as an associate attorney at Wilmer, Cutler, Pickering, Hale, and Dorr LLP in Washington, D.C., where she worked on policy and legislative analysis, congressional relations, voting rights, and national security matters. She also served as an adjunct professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law, where she taught National Security Law and Policy.

Jessica has a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, an M.Ed. in Education Policy from Harvard University, and a B.S in Biomedical Engineering and a B.S. in Political Science from the University of Michigan. She is admitted to practice law in the District of Columbia and Virginia.