NAMI Ask the Expert: The Criminal Legal System – Transformation to Health and Justice

Deborah A. Reid, Senior Health Policy Attorney, Legal Action Center 
Deborah joined LAC in April 2015, and she currently directs LAC’s legislative and policy work to protect the confidentiality of substance use disorder treatment and prevention records. She also participates in LAC’s advocacy to ensure implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) for justice-involved individuals.

Prior to coming to LAC, Deborah was a senior attorney at the National Health Law Program, where her work focused on issues relating to reproductive health, health equity, Medicaid, and ACA implementation. Previously, she was also an attorney advisor in the Office of General Counsel of the US Commission on Civil Rights in Washington, DC, and a senior health care program planner analyst at the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation. She has a JD from Rutgers School of Law-Newark; a Master’s of Professional Studies in health services administration from the New School for Social Research (Milano – The New School for Management and Policy); and a BA in Sociology from Rutgers University. She is a current board member of the Black Women’s Health Imperative.

Gabrielle de la Guéronnière, Vice President for Health and Justice Policy, Legal Action Center
Gabrielle de la Guéronnière leads LAC’s national policy advocacy to expand and improve the health responses to substance use disorders, and to end discrimination against people with drug and alcohol histories and arrest or conviction records. After joining LAC’s Washington, DC office in 2003, Ms. de la Guéronnière directed LAC’s federal advocacy toward successful inclusion of strong addiction and mental health provisions in the Affordable Care Act and passage into law of the Second Chance Act reentry legislation.

Ms. de la Guéronnière currently works nationally to improve health access for people with addiction and mental health service needs, including those involved in the criminal legal system. She is a member of LAC’s No Health = No Justice campaign team which, in 2018, launched a multi-state advocacy and organizing campaign to highlight the intersection of historic and ongoing racism in the health care and criminal legal systems. She also works to eliminate legal and policy barriers faced by people with arrest and conviction records and substance use histories.

Ms. de la Guéronnière is a frequent presenter and technical assistance provider nationally on a variety of health and criminal justice policy issues and is a graduate of Boston University and American University’s Washington College of Law.