Bianca Tylek

Bianca Tylek is the Founder and Executive Director of Worth Rises and driven by her direct experience with the criminal legal system as a youth. She is one of the nation’s foremost experts on the prison industry and a leader in the national prison phone justice movement. She led the first successful campaign to make jail phone calls free in New York City and has supported similar initiatives across the country since.

Previously, Tylek worked for the Justice Program at the Brennan Center for Justice and Campaign to End Mass Incarceration at the American Civil Liberties Union, and co-founded College Way, a preparation program for students on Rikers Island interested in pursuing higher education upon their release.

Tylek has also worked with various state and local corrections agencies, including New York City, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts, and consulted to the Association of State Correctional Administrators. Most notably, in New York City, she drafted the nation’s first young adult plan that eliminated solitary confinement for people 21 years old and younger.

Before committing her career to justice, Tylek worked as a financial analyst at Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs.

Tylek has been honored as a Draper Richard Kaplan Entrepreneur, Art For Justice Fellow, TED Fellow, Equal Justice Works Fellow, Harvard University Presidential Public Service Fellow, Ford Foundation Public Interest Fellow, Paul & Daisy Soros New American Fellow, and an Education Pioneers Analyst Fellow. Bianca holds a B.A. from Columbia University and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.