Juan Pablo Madrigal L’24

Juan Pablo emigrated from Colombia to the United States when he was 8 years old. He grew up right outside of Scranton, PA, and frequented many areas of the Tri-State Area growing up.

Interests in psychology, human development, and social policy initially drew Juan Pablo towards the public interest field. He earned a Professional Graduate Certificate in Human Rights from Columbia University in New York City in 2015, a BS in Human Development and Family Studies w/ a Focus on Lifespan Development in 2016 from The Pennsylvania State University, and various accreditations to provide person-centered employment services to individuals with disabilities. He has worked at Goodwill Industries of Northeastern PA since 2016 as an assistant program manager for an at-risk youth mentoring program, employment services court liaison, director of employment services, and, most recently, director of court employment services.

Juan Pablo has experience directly helping justice impacted and/or disabled individuals of all ages in community and court settings via the development, implementation, and management of sustainable, evidence-based programming. His proudest accomplishments so far are developing and implementing a holistic employment services model for justice-impacted individuals struggling with substance abuse and other comorbidities in The Lackawanna County Treatment Courts, successfully managing a Google Digital Literacy Grant bringing digital skills to more than 1,000 people in PA, and securing the PA Labor & Industry’s Digital Literacy and Workforce Development Grant in 2021 for Goodwill through collaborative grant writing efforts.

In the summer of 2022, Juan Pablo was selected as a Peggy Browning Fellow and worked in the Employment Unit of Community Legal Services in Philadelphia. He is also the Associate Editor on the Journal of Law and Public Affairs, a Board Member and Research Editor of the Civil Rights Liberty Project, and the Pro Bono Co-Chair for LALSA.

Juan Pablo hopes to use his Penn Carey Law education and experience as a Toll Scholar to research effective reentry models, support evidence-based sentencing practices, and increase equitability in the justice system.