Lisa Guirsch, B.A., is a formerly incarcerated scholar, organizer, author, and systems reform leader advancing higher education access, workforce equity, and public policy transformation for justice-impacted communities. Her work operates at the intersection of education, democracy, and economic mobility, grounded in the belief that those most impacted by systems must be positioned to redesign them. While incarcerated in Oregon, Lisa served as a GED advanced mathematics tutor, assisting more than 150 women in earning their diplomas.
Following her release, she transformed lived experience into institutional and legislative leadership through testifying before the Oregon State Legislature, advising local, county, state, and national initiatives, holding elected city and county leadership roles, and serving as a Governor-appointed member of Oregon’s Gender Responsiveness Advisory Panel. Lisa is the co-founder of Project Rebound PNW, which has expanded the nationally recognized Project Rebound model to Oregon and the Pacific Northwest. Through mentorship and partnership with leadership at San Francisco State University’s Project Rebound, she has worked to build sustainable pathways connecting incarceration, higher education, and long-term economic mobility for formerly incarcerated students statewide.
Lisa serves as the program coordinator at Prison to Professionals, where she is also a scholar, graduate, and long-time mentor supporting justice-impacted individuals pursuing higher education and professional careers. She is a co-author of “Breaking Chains, Building Futures,” which has contributed to a growing national narrative centering justice-impacted leadership in higher education and policy reform. She currently lives in Portland, Oregon, with her wife, Rachel, and their two cats, Nicodemus and Axl.
