Lisa Daugaard, a longtime public defender with a rich history in advocacy and civic affairs, was recently named the deputy director of the Department of Public Defense.

She comes to DPD from The Defender Association Division, where she has served as deputy director since 2007. Lisa is a graduate of Yale Law School; she also has a master’s in government from Cornell University. After she obtained her J.D. in 1995, Lisa went to work for The Defender Association, where she handled misdemeanor and felony work, represented hundreds of WTO co-defendants, and helped to launch TDA’s Racial Disparity Project, a highly regarded project that uses policy advocacy, litigation, community organizing and other education to reduce racial bias in the criminal justice system. She also helped to develop LEAD (Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion), which has been hailed as a model for low-level drug offenders and is being replicated in other cities.

Lisa is working closely with Dave Chapman, the County’s Public Defender, on all aspects of running the new Department of Public Defense.

(Excerpted from DPD’s For The Defense newsletter).