Sarah Gersten
Sarah GerstenAge: 32
Title: Executive director
Last Prisoner Project
As the executive director and general counsel for the Last Prisoner Project, a nonprofit focused on cannabis and criminal justice reform, Sarah Gersten leads the organization’s direct legal service programs while working to ensure it prioritizes the voices and perspectives of impacted individuals.
“Though I have always been an advocate for legalization as a cannabis consumer, learning more about the social justice implications of ending prohibition is what really drew me to the movement,” Gersten says.
Gersten has worked at the intersection of cannabis legalization and criminal justice reform throughout her career. As an attorney at a congressional agency, she focused on legislative policy and co-founded a cannabis-centric law firm Gersten Saltman where she led its pro-bono initiative, taking on expungement and record-sealing cases. Gersten is also co-founder and CEO of Buddle, a legal tech startup that offers affordable legal solutions for small cannabis business owners, as well as free expungement services.
Gersten is a member of the National Cannabis Bar Association, the NORML Legal Committee and the National Lawyers Guild and received her Bachelor of Arts from Tulane University and her Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School.
“I hope to consistently raise awareness that while some are able to freely profit from cannabis, others are still incarcerated or suffering the collateral consequences of a criminal conviction for the exact same thing, and redressing that injustice should be our first priority,” she says.
Q&A
What initially drew you to cannabis legalization and criminal justice reform?
Though I have always been an advocate for legalization as a cannabis consumer, learning more about the social justice implications of ending prohibition is what really drew me to the movement. There is a huge opportunity to leverage legalization to reform our criminal legal system and that’s what I’m hoping to harness at LPP.
What do you wish to change or add to the industry most?
I hope to consistently raise awareness that while some are able to freely profit from cannabis, others are still incarcerated or suffering the collateral consequences of a criminal conviction for the exact same thing-and redressing that injustice should be our first priority.
What has been your biggest career milestone thus far?
Starting LPP from the ground up and growing it to a sustainable organization with an incredible team and really robust, impactful programming has certainly been the career milestone I am most proud of.
What do you hope your next milestone would be?
I am hopeful that we can take the roadmap we’ve built with LPP for both post-conviction relief and more systemic criminal justice policy work and scope that out to broader reforms beyond cannabis.