Leah Nelson is research director at the Alabama Appleseed Center for Law and Justice. She is the organizations's principal expert on how fines and fees drive poverty and incarceration and the author of "Under Pressure: How Fines and Fees Hurt People, Undermine Public Safety, and Drive Alabama's Racial Wealth Divide," among other reports.
Before joining Appleseed, Nelson worked in the Capital Habeas Unit of the Federal Defender for the Middle District of Alabama. She also reported on hate and extremism with the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Project. She holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Connecticut and a master's degree from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.
