Carolyn Lipp
Carolyn joined the Center in June 2024 as a Staff Attorney II with the Legal Center for Foster Care and Education. Carolyn began her legal career as a family defense attorney at Brooklyn Defender Services, advocating for parents and caregivers in child welfare proceedings. She then worked as an education attorney, where she advocated for court-involved families experiencing educational challenges—including specialized advocacy and support for parents of children in the foster system. Her experiences working with parents fighting to stay involved in their children’s lives during family separation reinforced her belief that parents are experts in their children’s lives, and that involving and empowering parents is key to improving educational outcomes for children in the foster system.
Prior to joining the ABA, Carolyn was selected as a Gruber Fellow in Justice and Women’s Rights and completed a fellowship at the Centre for Justice Innovation in London. There, she conducted research on the Family Drug and Alcohol Courts—a pilot court intervention for families undergoing child protective proceedings that is strengths-based, trauma-informed, and collaborative. She also wrote evidence briefings on family court best practices and researched innovative family justice practices across the UK.
Carolyn graduated from Wesleyan University with a B.A. in History and received her J.D. from Yale Law School.
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