Chelsea Dunn Torrey joined LAJC as the Youth Justice Program Director in 2025, where she oversees YJP’s work on education access and funding, special education, and youth decarceration. Chelsea is an attorney who attended University of Richmond School of Law and obtained her undergraduate degree from College of Charleston. Before LAJC, she worked for Southern Legal Counsel, a small non-profit impact litigation firm in Gainesville, Florida, where she worked on behalf of children involved in special education and school discipline cases, people with disabilities, and individuals experiencing homelessness. In 2022, Chelsea was honored as a finalist for Public Counsel’s Trial Lawyer of the Year award for her work on the litigation team for McArdle v. City of Ocala, a case challenging a city ordinance criminalizing sleeping outdoors. Chelsea began her legal career as a clerk for the Virginia Supreme Court and then took a position at the Child and Family Law Division of Committee for Public Counsel Services (CPCS), the Massachusetts Public Defender’s office, where she represented indigent parents and children in dependency cases.