Andrea McChristian

Andrea McChristian is the Southern Poverty Law Center’s research director, overseeing the organization’s policy research.

Previously, McChristian served as the law and policy director for the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice. In this role, she led a 10-member team to advance the institute’s litigation and policy objectives, testified on numerous occasions before the New Jersey Legislature and authored four reports that served as the foundation of the institute’s youth justice campaign.

Earlier, McChristian was a litigation associate with a New York law firm. She also served as a law clerk for U.S. District Judge Petrese B. Tucker of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. As a member of Teach for America, she was a Head Start teacher for two years in the Las Vegas Valley.

McChristian has a bachelor’s degree in political science from Yale University, a master’s degree in early childhood education from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and a law degree from Columbia Law School.