Raquiba LaBrie is the director of the Equality Fund at the Open Society Foundations. In this role, LaBrie directs grantmaking focused on ensuring justice and equality, prohibiting arbitrary and discriminatory government action, and lifting barriers that prevent people from participating fully in economic, social, and political life. Recently, LaBrie spearheaded an Open Society Foundations initiative to respond to the subprime lending crisis.
LaBrie was previously the program director of U.S. Programs’ Sentencing & Incarceration Alternatives Project, which sought to reduce the scale of incarceration in the U.S. by: eliminating race and class disparities in sentencing and incarceration; promoting alternatives to incarceration; and limiting prison growth and prison privatization. LaBrie also directed the Soros Justice Fellowships and served as program officer for U.S. Programs’ Access to Justice program, which focused on strengthening the federally funded civil legal aid field.
Prior to joining the Open Society Foundations, LaBrie was an associate in the exempt organizations practice group of Patterson, Belknap, Webb & Tyler. While there she represented a range of private foundations and nongovernmental organizations, including community economic development organizations, social justice activists, and funders supporting micro-credit lending institutions in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. She graduated from Yale College and Harvard Law School.