Anna Byers joined Southern Coalition for Social Justice in 2025 as Senior Counsel for Environmental Justice.
Anna attended Bowdoin College and Harvard Law School with a brief stint in between at the Wildlife Conservation Society. At Harvard, she completed over 1000 hours of pro bono work and served as the head writer for the law school parody. After law school, she was an Immigrant Justice Corps fellow representing West African families in the Bronx in immigration cases. Afterwards, Anna was a supervising attorney at the Immigrants Rights Program of the American Friends Service Committee helping to grow a program that provided universal representation to detained immigrants in New Jersey. Anna specialized in appellate work and complex cases at the intersection of criminal and immigration law. Anna also served as an associate general counsel for the Governor Cooper’s administration and is most proud of the contributions she made to Governor Cooper’s clemency work.
A native of Louisville, KY, Anna believes the South can, should, and does serve as a leader for progressive change in the United States. Like immigration work, environmental justice work is deeply tied to giving people peace in the places they call home. Anna is excited to do this work with communities in the South. Outside of work, Anna is most often found hiking or running around Durham, playing board games, or going on adventures with her family.