Alelur “Alex” Duran is a Program Director at Galaxy Gives overseeing its Criminal Justice Reform portfolio. He previously served as a program specialist with the Open Society Foundations supporting grant-making efforts tackling mass incarceration in the United States.

Alex’s entry point into philanthropy began at the Ford Foundation as a business associate advancing its mission of addressing inequality in all its manifestations.

Prior to joining Ford, he worked at the Center for Community Alternatives, where he provided counseling for men and women involved with the justice system and helped the agency execute its broader justice reform strategy. At CCA, Alex became a spokesperson in support of efforts to raise the age of criminal responsibility for adolescents in New York State.

His passion to dismantle systems of oppression come from having been impacted by the criminal legal system at a young age and being sentenced to 14 years in prison.

He has a BA from Bard College. His thesis, “Gang Exportation and the Reproduction of Violence: The Trinitarios in the Crucible of Mass Incarceration,” provided a case study on how mass incarceration in the United States contributes to deviance amplification and the expansion of gangs to other countries.

A lover of history, Alex grew up in the boogie-down Bronx, New York.