By Gabrielle Terrett

The Vicksburg Post

Participating in the legal profession isn’t always a walk in the park. People are involved in all aspects of the field, and emotions are bound to arise. This comes in consideration with busy schedules, constant cancellations, numerous meetings, and continuous chaos.

While the practice can be complicated at times it can also be a breeze for everyone involved when an attorney as dedicated as Jamita Gilleylen is present.

“I am a family lawyer and I handle a lot of matters in youth court,” said Gilleylen, a Vicksburg native and Vicksburg High School graduate. “Out of everything that I do I think that’s what matters to me the most.

“My hope is if I can help them while they are younger they won’t make it into the adult system.”

Gilleylen made up her mind to become an advocate for children after looking back on her own life and seeing the path that many of her peers took. She felt as though a majority of them took a different route because they lacked a support system.

“There are so many kids in the Vicksburg area who need help,” she said. “I grew up in a single parent home, and in the neighborhoods I lived, I saw a lot of kids who grew up in the same neighborhood and they went another way.

“All I can think of is if they had had someone like me then maybe they would have gone in a different direction.

“I had people around me who constantly surrounded me. I had a village, and if they had that village then maybe they wouldn’t be in trouble now. So I try to advocate for the children so they don’t end up on the wrong side of the tracks.”

Mentor to children

As a strong advocate for children, Gilleylen practices strong mentor roles. She serves as a juvenile defender and guardian ad litem in the Warren County Youth Court.

While striving to gain justice for the children she represents, it is rare that she does not become connected to her clients.

“I do become attached to the children,” Gilleylen said. “It makes it hard for me to stay neutral, but I have to understand that I have to separate myself from the children and still do my job, but I do get attached. I want to take literally half of the children home.”

Along with using her skills with children as an attorney, Gilleylen also uses them with the children at her church, New Zion Missionary Baptist Church.

“I have been there since I was a child,” Gilleylen said. “I was baptized there and my whole family still goes there.

“I’m a youth director with the children and I love doing that. I used to be a Sunday school teacher with the kids but we no longer have a lot of kids that come to Sunday school now.”

The youth director of the church, Gilleylen has a love for helping children and she has become a respected mentor in the community.

“I’ve done community service with the United Way and my husband and I privately tutor children. We also go to the Central Mississippi Prevention Center,” Gilleylen said. “That is owned by Mr. Joe Johnson and we volunteer there as well and that is something that is really close to our hearts.”

As a representative for children, Gilleylen always jumps at the opportunity to help any of the youth in the community. She often advises girls who need someone willing to go the extra mile on their support team.

“So I have friends who have friends, and they would always say, ‘Hey I have a friend who can talk to your daughter,’” said Gilleylen. “So that’s how it started. I would just talk to them and I would tell them ‘Look, if you need anything you can call me.’

“I think it’s always easier to talk to someone outside of your mom so that’s how that came about.”

Gilleylen was recently named one of the 50 leading businesswomen in Mississippi by the Mississippi Business Journal.

A graduate of Jackson State University and Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and a member of Vicksburg’s JSU Alumni chapter, she is also in the running to be the top leading businesswoman in Mississippi but says that it was an honor to even be selected for the top 50.

It is not her many accomplishments that keep her inspired, but rather the children that she works so diligently with each and every day.

“My love for the kids here in Vicksburg keeps me going,” Gilleylen said. “That’s really what keeps me going. I have hopes that if I save just one then I’ve at least done something.”