Bryan Stevenson

Bryan Stevenson is the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), a human rights organization based in Montgomery, Alabama. Under his leadership, EJI has won major legal challenges eliminating excessive and unfair sentencing, exonerating over 140 innocent death-row prisoners, confronting abuse of the incarcerated and the mentally ill, and aiding children prosecuted as adults.

Stevenson has initiated major anti-poverty and anti-discrimination efforts that challenge inequality in America. He also led the creation of EJI’s highly acclaimed Legacy Sites, including the Legacy Museum, the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, and Freedom Monument Sculpture Park.

Stevenson’s work has won him numerous awards including the prestigious MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Prize, the American Bar Association Medal, the National Medal of Liberty from the American Civil Liberties Union, and the Olof Palme Prize for international human rights. Additionally, Stevenson has received over 50 honorary doctorates, was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2014, and was named to the 2015 Time 100 list, recognizing the world’s most influential people. In 2023, he was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Joseph Biden.

Stevenson is the author of the critically acclaimed New York Times bestseller Just Mercy, which was adapted into a major motion picture, winning the American Bar Association’s 2020 Silver Gavel Award as well as four NAACP Image Awards. Stevenson is also the subject of the Emmy Award–winning HBO documentary True Justice. He is a graduate of the Harvard Law School and the Harvard School of Government.