Alex Duran (he/him)

Alelur “Alex” Duran is a Program Director of Criminal Justice Reform at Galaxy Gives, where he leads strategic investments aimed at dismantling systemic injustices in the U.S. criminal legal system. He serves on the boards of Freedom Reads, the Center for Community Alternatives, and the Medical Justice Alliance, amplifying his commitment to transforming the conditions of confinement and advancing community-based alternatives to incarceration.

Before joining Galaxy Gives, Alex was a program specialist at the Open Society Foundations, where he supported grant-making efforts focused on ending mass incarceration. His philanthropic journey began at the Ford Foundation as a business associate, working to confront inequality in its many forms.

Alex’s roots in advocacy trace back to his work at the Center for Community Alternatives, where he counseled individuals entangled in the justice system and helped drive the organization's broader reform initiatives. As a vocal advocate, he played a role in the movement to raise the age of criminal responsibility in New York State.

Alex's passion for justice is deeply personal. Having been impacted by the criminal legal system at a young age and sentenced to 14 years in prison, he has firsthand experience with the oppressive structures he now seeks to dismantle. He holds a BA from Bard College, where his thesis, “Gang Exportation and the Reproduction of Violence: The Trinitarios in the Crucible of Mass Incarceration,” examined the ways mass incarceration fuels cycles of violence and the spread of gang culture beyond U.S. borders.

Born in Harlem and raised in the Boogie Down Bronx, Alex is a dedicated student of history, driven by an unwavering struggle to fulfill MLK's vision of bending the moral arc of the universe toward justice.