Lisette Burton

Lisette Burton is the Director of National Advocacy for Boys Town, where she advocates for effective federal and state policies related to child welfare, juvenile justice, education, and health. Lisette joined Boys Town in 2007 as a Family Teacher caring for girls in the child welfare system and boys committed to the juvenile justice system in a family-style, community-based, therapeutic residential program. Prior to Boys Town, Lisette worked in North Carolina as a program director at a therapeutic residential wilderness camp and later as a community organizer focused on quality early childhood education and parental involvement in schools. Lisette’s foundational experiences with children and families included work in Detroit as an Americorps volunteer at a day treatment center for court involved youth and as a coordinator for a school-based early intervention program. Lisette received her B.S. in Science from the Eberly College of Science at Penn State University. She earned her J.D. at the University Of Maryland Carey School Of Law, where she was a Leadership Scholar and Schweitzer Fellow, a pro bono law clerk representing children with special needs, a student attorney at the National Association of the Deaf, and a legislative intern with the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. Lisette drew on her varied experience when she served as a mayoral appointee to the Washington, D.C. Juvenile Justice Advisory Group in 2011-2013.