Kimberly Jones Merchant is the director of the Racial Justice Institute (RJI) and Network at the Shriver Center on Poverty Law, where she leads and provides strategic oversight for the annual institute as well as its expanding alumni advocacy network. RJI is a national leadership program, grounded in a commitment to race-equity as an integral and essential part of anti-poverty advocacy. RJI puts race front and center in the fight for equal justice and addresses the impact of structural racialization to ensure that race is considered foremost in efforts to eradicate poverty in the communities we serve. Before joining the Shriver Center, Merchant served for six years as the managing attorney and educational opportunities director at the Mississippi Center for Justice’s Delta office, where, among other initiatives, she spearheaded efforts to disrupt the school to prison pipeline with the development and implantation of the Sunflower County Systems Change Project.