Abby Cook

Abby Cook is a Microsoft Use of Force Fellow for the Southern Center for Human Rights (SCHR), where she assists in communication and outreach for the public policy team.

Abby is currently a student at Georgia State University, where she studies Art and Film with a minor in criminology. Her work has been exhibited at Agnes Scott’s Revolutionary Art show (2022) as well as published in Tufts University’s ReSentencing Journal and Georgia State University’s Underground journal (2020). Her film The Sound of the End (2020), depicting the harsh mental health realities of being released from incarceration, was shown at the Justice Arts Coalition’s National Convening of Artists in 2021.

Outside of art and film, Abby co-founded the Beyond the Box campaign aiming to remove criminal history questions from college applications in Georgia. As a junior in college, she was able to work in partnership with the University System of Georgia (USG) to remove the First Offender question from all USG applications. She has been awarded four fellowships, including the Georgia Coalition for Higher Education’s advocacy fellowship (2021), Leader Change Network’s FICPFM fellowship (2021), and ULGA’s Red Zone NFL fellowship (2021). In August of 2022, Georgia State University nominated her for the Justice, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion award for her work to make GSU more accessible to formerly incarcerated people.