Jessica Rae has represented hundreds of children and teens in Child in Need of Assistance and Termination of Parental Rights proceedings, first as a staff attorney and then as a supervising attorney at the Legal Aid Bureau in Baltimore City, Maryland.  As Legal Aid’s Assistant Director of Advocacy for Children’s Rights, Jessica supervised the statewide child dependency appellate practice and focused on systemic advocacy through a mix of appeals, training, community outreach, legislative work and youth engagement.

After nine years at Legal Aid, Jessica left to join the Baltimore City Department of Social Services where she managed the Ready by 21 initiative created to improve outcomes for older youth in foster care through a mix of policy and programming. 

After one blizzard too many, Jessica and her husband moved to Florida where she became certified as a volunteer Guardian ad Litem in the 6^th district and looks forward to the day that every child involved in the foster care system has an attorney.