Laura Magnani is Interim Regional Director for the AmericanFriends Service Committee, Pacific Mountain Region.  Most of her work, going back to the 70s, has been in the area ofcriminal justice. From 1971-1979 she was the lobbyist for the Friends Committeeon Legislation in Sacramento, California, working on a broad range of issuesincluding equal rights, housing, criminal justice, and militarism. She isauthor of America’s First Penitentiary: A Two Hundred Year Old Failure (2000), and Beyond Prisons:  A New Interfaith Paradigm for Our FailedPrison System  (2006, Augsburg/FortressPress), that analyzes the racial, social and economic underpinnings of thecriminal justice system and explores new models of justice. In addition to herjob at AFSC she is adjunct faculty at Starr King School of the Ministry,teaching classes on prisons and prison ministry.

Laura has also been involved in the peace movementthroughout her adult life, seeing work to end violence around the world ascentral to her faith life. She has led workshops, among Friends, on the topicof Mysticism and Activism up and down the West Coast, and nationally for thepast several years. She has a BA from the University of California (1971) inEthnic Studies, and an MA from the Pacific School of Religion (1982) inReligion and Society. She is a Quaker, a member of the Berkeley FriendsMeeting.