Ava Obrecht L’24
Ava La Placa Obrecht came to Penn Carey Law to pursue a career in legal services. She is committed to working with people experiencing homelessness and people living in poverty, and she hopes to use her law degree to address both the structural inequities and the day-to-day difficulties clients face. She is motivated by a deep belief that every person deserves to live a dignified life and have their needs met.
She was raised in Ann Arbor, MI, and attended Earlham College, where she received a BA in Sociology and Anthropology. At Earlham College, she received the Bonner Scholarship, which afforded her the opportunity to work with a variety of community organizations throughout her undergrad experience, including Girls Inc., Amigos: the Richmond Latino Center, La Coalición de Derechos Humanos, and Shaping San Francisco. She graduated with a master’s degree in Geography from the University of Arizona in 2021, completing a thesis titled: “The Geographies of Overdose Response: Spaces of Care and Fear in Kensington, Philadelphia.”
After university, she worked as a School-Based Program Coordinator at the Big Brothers Big Sisters Program in Philadelphia before moving on to work as a Medication-Assisted Treatment Case Manager at Prevention Point Philadelphia. In her time at Prevention Point, she saw the positive change that ground-level advocacy work can make in clients’ lives, which led her to pursue a legal education.
Ava is excited to bring her background in social work to public interest lawyering and is passionate about providing zealous representation and holistic services to her future clients as a legal services attorney.