Best and Brightest: Megan Powell

Megan Powell

Deputy Director and Co-Founder

Time Served

Greenville

29

As a South Carolina native, I’ve spent my life helping my neighbors see the potential I see in our state. I grew up in Spartanburg, graduated from Byrnes High School, and earned my undergraduate degree from Converse University in 2019. Law school became my path to give back, and there I discovered a passion for second-chance work. After earning my J.D. from the Charleston School of Law in 2022, I co-founded Time Served in 2023 at 26 years old. We are a nonprofit providing free legal services to South Carolinians whose records hold them back long after they’ve paid their debt to society. As deputy director, I’ve helped Time Served grow into an organization serving nearly 500 clients per year, managing operations, coordinating legal clinics, and training pro bono attorneys. My long-term goal is to build Time Served into a statewide model for re-entry legal aid. To me, giving back means meeting people at their hardest moments and reminding them a second chance is possible.

Favorite Quote and Why: "Justice is what love looks like in public." – Cornel West. This is why I do what I do. Kindness and care for other people are the values I try to lead with in every part of my life. This quote reminds me that those aren't separate from the work of justice; they are the work, just made public. Re-entry legal work can look purely technical from the outside, but at its core it's compassion turned into motions, paperwork, and advocacy that changes people's lives. Justice isn't abstract. It's something you build for real people, in public, one step at a time.

Definition of a Successful Leader: A successful leader builds something that doesn't depend on them and allows the mission to outlast them.

Advice to 18-Year-Old Self: There is great joy and purpose in the "right now," even if right now feels uncertain or scary. Don't spend your "right now" trying to figure everything out. You won't get to choose much (if any) of what happens to you, but how you meet it is entirely yours, and some of the most life-changing moments happen when you choose to pursue your "right now."