Guisela Marroquín

Guisela Marroquín serves as the Executive Director of the Pretrial Justice Institute (PJI), bringing over 15 years of experience advancing racial equity, policy reform, and community-driven solutions. A lifelong advocate for systemic change, Guisela has worked at the intersection of direct service, organizing, and policy advocacy—leading efforts to help advance the vision of ending mass incarceration and other forms of community harm.

Before joining PJI’s staff, Guisela served on the organization’s board and as Board Chair, helping shape its strategic direction and deepen its commitment to equity. Her prior work includes leading statewide campaigns on issues such as bail reform, solitary confinement, police accountability, and immigrant justice at the New York Civil Liberties Union. She also served as Director of Training and Engagement at the Advocacy Institute, where she developed legislative advocacy training programs for grassroots organizers and community leaders across New York State and helped develop its bilingual training spaces and tools.

As Senior Director of Programs at The New York Women’s Foundation, Guisela oversaw multi-million-dollar grantmaking portfolios focused on criminal justice reform and gender equity. She helped build collaborative funding initiatives like the Justice Fund and the NYC Fund for Girls and Young Women of Color, as well as managing the Narrative Shift & Culture Change portfolio, expanding philanthropic support for community-based organizations leading transformative work.

A proud Guatemalan immigrant and first-generation college graduate, Guisela’s leadership is rooted in lived experience, shared power, and a commitment to making complex systems more accessible. She brings a visionary, collaborative approach to movement-building, working alongside directly impacted communities to reimagine justice and safety beyond incarceration.

Guisela holds a Master’s in Social Work with a concentration in Community Organizing, Planning and Development from CUNY Hunter’s Silberman School of Social Work, and a B.S. in Behavioral Sciences from Mercy University. She lives in New York with her husband and their dog, Harlee—named after Harlem, a place for radical imagination and radical love.