Dr. Alice Green, founder and director of the Center for Law and Justice in Albany, has died.

She founded the organization in 1985.

Green has been a high-profile advocate for civil rights issues locally including those that affect poor people of color.

She has a doctorate in criminal justice and three master’s degrees, according to the biography on the organization’s website.

Green is an adjunct professor at the University at Albany. She has been a secondary school teacher and social worker. She also served as director of the Trinity Institution, which is a youth and family services center on the South End.

She served in Gov. Mario Cuomo’s administration as deputy commissioner of the New York State Division of Probation and Correctional Alternatives. Green left that position in 1992. She also has worked for the New York Civil Liberties Union.

Green is also a published author including co-writing the book Law Never Here, A Social History of African American Responses to Issues of Crime and Justice.

Mayor Kathy Sheehan released the following statement about Green’s death:

“Dr. Alice Green dedicated her life to eradicating systemic racism. A child of the Adirondacks, Alice utilized her unique perspective as one of only two Black families in a small North Country mining town to help shape the advocacy she led for decades in Albany’s historically redlined neighborhoods — all in an effort to help lift up the communities that were often left behind.

Alice also worked closely with my administration, the Albany Police Department, and various local organizations to help Albany become then only the third city in the nation to create a Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) program — one of the many efforts to enhance community policing and be a model for 21st century policing strategies.

Beyond activism, Alice was also a local philanthropist. Alice worked closely alongside her husband, Charles, to support various community-based organizations and public initiatives that were dedicated to reversing the disinvestments of the past. One of the initiatives supported by the Touhey Foundation included the City’s 2,025 Trees by 2025 program, of which Alice’s and Charles’ support helped us meet our goal more than a year ahead of schedule.

My deepest condolences are with Alice’s husband, Charles, and the entire Green & Touhey Family during this difficult time.”

University at Albany President Havidán Rodríguez also released a statement about the death of Green, a 2022 Citizen Laureate, who established The Touhey Family Fellows Program at UAlbany’s School of Education with her husband Charles Touhey.

“The entire University at Albany community mourns the loss of a great advocate, philanthropist, and educator. Alice Green’s name has long been synonymous with the fight for justice and equity in the Capital Region and beyond. She will be remembered as a tireless advocate for justice for people in marginalized communities and a believer in the transformational power of education. Alice and her husband, Charles Touhey, established a program at UAlbany to diversify the teaching and counseling professions in our region and Alice regularly spoke during New York State Writers Institute events and to UAlbany students. In 2022, UAlbany recognized Alice’s commitment to social justice and advocacy and her ongoing service to underserved communities by naming her a Citizen Laureate of the university.”

“Alice was a great friend and trusted advisor to me personally, and someone who made the world fairer and more just. She leaves us far too soon, but her incredible legacy lives on. We are so proud to count her among our Great Dane family.”

Few people were closer to Alice Green than fellow crusader Willie White.

“She was never going to be deterred from pushing forward and doing the things that needed to get done when it came to social justice,” White asserted.

White, who spent part of his summer vacation with Green in the Adirondacks earlier this month, said Green appeared to look healthy and energetic. Her death on Tuesday afternoon, he said, was unexpected and devastating.

“We will forever remember Alice forever,” White continued. “Alice left something on our heart that can never be taken away or forgotten.”

Former Albany Police Chief Brendan Cox credits Green with creating the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion Program -LEAD – which is kind of a cousin to the Community Police Review Board where he says Green’s voice was always loud and clear.

“Alice would make sure that people are human beings first and what ever act they may have committed, that’s second,” Cox recalled. “Her death is a huge loss in so many ways, from a human perspective, from a person, she was just an awesome human being.”

“The legacy of Alice Green,” White suggested, “Was that she was a woman who fought for social justice without deterrence, without wavering. Alice fought for social justice and uplifting her people.”

“I can’t imagine what the city of Albany would be like without Alice Green,” Cox added. “I don’t know what the police department would be like without Alice Green. the city of Albany is 100% a better place because of Alice Green.”

“Throughout history, throughout the rest of our lives, we will talk about Alice Green and the impact that she made on this community,” White stated.