White House Author

At 25 years old, Jamira Burley works as the Executive Director for the City of Philadelphia Youth Commission. In this role, Jamira works as an advocate for authentic youth civic engagement, global citizenship, comprehensive education reform, black male achievement and gun violence prevention. Jamira is the United States representative to the United Nations Global Education First Initiative, Youth Advocacy Group. She is also the co-founder/co-host for GenYNot, a youth platform that allows young people to be the experts of their own experience and create solution-driven dialogue. In 2005, Jamira’s brother was shot and killed, and since then she has worked to employ her personal experiences as the driving force to improve the lives of others. Currently, Jamira works on both local and national initiatives to eliminate gun violence and help create safe living and learning environments for youth. From advocacy to program development, Jamira helps lead the youth engagement on the working group for the National Forum on Youth Violence Prevention, Cities United and is a member of the Roosevelt Institute Millennial Gun Violence Prevention Task Force.