Gabriella Celeste, JD, Policy Director, is Co-Director of the Childhood Studies Program and an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology. She works to build partnerships that promote effective public policy and practice for the well-being of children and adolescents. Gabriella also teaches an undergraduate child policy curriculum, supervises Schubert’s child policy externship program and conducts trainings and presentations on various topics related to child well-being and developmentally-informed policies and practices. She has worked extensively with vulnerable children in various nonprofit and administrative roles, both directly and conducting applied research, evaluation and technical assistance for foundations, nonprofit and government agencies.
Gabriella co-founded the Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana in 1997 (now the Louisiana Center for Children's Rights) and has been instrumental in juvenile justice policy reform in Ohio. Her other policy efforts include child lead poisoning prevention, child welfare reform and police-youth interactions. She is a Governor-appointee to the Ohio Public Defender Commission, a County-Executive appointee to the Cuyahoga County Advisory Board to the Division of Children and Family Services and currently serves on numerous state and local committees and coalitions, including the Youth Risk Behavior Survey Community Advisory Board, the Mental Health Response Advisory Committee for the US DOJ Cleveland Consent Decree, the Ohio Lead Free Kids Coalition and the Lead Safe Cleveland Steering Committee.
Gabriella received her B.S. from Northwestern University and J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School.