
Kirsten Widner
About Kirsten
Widner’s research is focused on democratic participation by non-voters, including those who are legally prevented from voting (e.g. children, noncitizen immigrants, and incarcerated people), as well those who face structure barriers to voting. For 7 years, she Widner worked as a public policy-focused lawyer working in the areas of child abuse and juvenile justice. In her advocacy work, she was a lobbyist on children’s issues in the Georgia state capitol and was instrumental in the passage of Georgia’s new juvenile code (adopted May 2013), as well as many other bills on topics such as teen sexting, domestic minor sex trafficking, shelters for runaway youth, and open adoption. Widner is a volunteer policy mentor for the Georgia Women’s Policy Institute, a program of the YWCA. Her legal expertise is primarily in children’s rights and family law.