Black Public Defender Association

Black Public Defender Association A national network of Black public defenders building power, advancing justice, and fighting for the communities we serve.
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08/26/2026

Wellness has always looked like joy. 🖤

Joy in community. Joy in connection. Joy as a reminder that the work we do matters and so do we.

At the 2026 BPDA Summer Conference, we intentionally created space for that joy, and these moments prove it showed up in full. To every person who danced, laughed, ate good food, and exhaled in community with us — this one's for you.

Joy is not a break from the work. It is the work.

And speaking of things to look forward to, the 2026 BPDA Winter Conference is coming, and registration details will be announced soon. Stay tuned!

08/26/2026

Wellness has always looked like joy. 🖤

Joy in community. Joy in connection. Joy as a reminder that the work we do matters and so do we.

At the 2026 BPDA Summer Conference, we intentionally created space for that joy, and these moments prove it showed up in full. To every person who danced, laughed, ate good food, and exhaled in community with us — this one's for you.

Joy is not a break from the work. It is the work.

And speaking of things to look forward to, the 2026 BPDA Winter Conference is coming, and registration details will be announced soon. Stay tuned!

You've mentored the new attorney in your office. You've explained race and power to a judge who didn't want to hear it. ...
08/24/2026

You've mentored the new attorney in your office. You've explained race and power to a judge who didn't want to hear it. You've built trust with a client the system had already given up on.

That's a session waiting to happen.

We're calling for proposals for our inaugural Winter Virtual Conference: Leading with Power, Defending our Communities. Panels, workshops, skills trainings, roundtables, lectures, wellness sessions: whatever format tells your story best.

Attorneys, social workers, investigators, paralegals, professors, community partners — new to the work or twenty years in — we want to hear from you.

📅 Proposals due August 31
🔗 Submit now: https://bpda.blackdefender.org/4wDimKf

🙌🏾 Meet the BPDA Law School Committee!This group is the engine behind our Law School Fellowship year-round — not just du...
08/21/2026

🙌🏾 Meet the BPDA Law School Committee!

This group is the engine behind our Law School Fellowship year-round — not just during the summer. They lead our recruiting efforts, spend months brainstorming and building the fellowship curriculum, stay active on Slack, supporting fellows in real time, and even host a comprehensive debrief session at the end of the summer to ensure fellows leave with contacts and ongoing support.

This summer, they also led fellows through key professional development sessions on career readiness, networking, mental health in public defense, and long-term career sustainability.

Simply put — they don't just support the fellowship. They run it. 😉

Meet the committee:
🎤 Jasmine Perkins → Harriscounty County Public Defender's Office
🎤 Javionté Johnson → Defender Services Office Training Division
🎤 Ashley Washington → Virginia Indigent Defense Commission
🎤 Amari Harris → Virginia Indigent Defense Commission
🎤 Jac'queline Baskerville → Los Angeles County Public Defender
🎤 Jonteal Hasty → Marion County Public Defender Agency

Thank you all for your incredible thoughtfulness. Your dedication ensures the Black Defender pipeline continues to see significant growth, and we are grateful for the care you put into your presentations and your contributions to a successful summer.

🙌🏾 Meet the Instructors of the 2026 BPDA Fellows Trial Advocacy Program (Part 2)!Continuing our thank-you to the instruc...
08/19/2026

🙌🏾 Meet the Instructors of the 2026 BPDA Fellows Trial Advocacy Program (Part 2)!

Continuing our thank-you to the instructors of this year's Trial Advocacy Program (TAP) — the weeklong virtual training that gave our 2026 Law School Fellows hands-on coaching in opening statements, cross and direct examination, and closing arguments, led by Training Strategist Ieshaah Murphy.

Meet the rest of this year's instructors:
⚖️ Stephanie Johnson → Stephen S. Weinstein Advocacy Program, American University Washington College of Law
⚖️ JoEllyn Jones → Seton Hall Law School Center for Social Justice
⚖️ Dinah Manning → Los Angeles City Controller's Office
⚖️ Vickie Mwitanti → New York County Defender Services
⚖️ Stephany Reaves → Munger, Tolles & Olson
⚖️ Melanie Roberts → Committee for Public Counsel Services, Youth Advocacy (Massachusetts)
⚖️ Porsha Shaf'on Venable → The Bronx Defenders/ The Juror Project

To every instructor across both parts of this series: thank you for pouring into our fellows and helping shape the next generation of trial-ready public defenders.

🙌🏾 Meet the Instructors of the 2026 BPDA Fellows Trial Advocacy Program (Part 1)!In May, the 2026 BPDA Law School Fellow...
08/17/2026

🙌🏾 Meet the Instructors of the 2026 BPDA Fellows Trial Advocacy Program (Part 1)!

In May, the 2026 BPDA Law School Fellows took part in our Trial Advocacy Program (TAP) — a weeklong, virtual immersion into trial skills led by Training Strategist, Ieshaah Murphy.

Through lectures, independent prep, and small-group performance exercises, fellows built the core skills of client representation: theory of the case & opening statements, cross-examination, direct examination, and closing arguments.

None of that happens without our instructors — experienced public defenders and trial advocates from across the country who volunteered their time, expertise, and honest feedback to sharpen the next generation of defenders.

Meet this round of instructors:
⚖️ Rebecca Amdemariam → Committee for Public Counsel Services (Massachusetts)
⚖️ Jon Armstrong → Former Staff Attorney, The Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia
⚖️ Terrence Austin → The Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia
⚖️ Byron Conway → Federal Defenders Program for the Middle District of Georgia
⚖️ Quiana Harris → The Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia
⚖️ Anthony Harrison → The Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia
⚖️ Jasmine Hope → Maryland Office of the Public Defender

Thank you for investing your time and talent into our fellows — this is how we build the future of public defense.

🎉 Introducing our 2026 Community Engagement Fellows!The Black Public Defender Association is proud to welcome another co...
08/14/2026

🎉 Introducing our 2026 Community Engagement Fellows!

The Black Public Defender Association is proud to welcome another cohort into our Community Engagement Fellowship (CEF) — a paid 8–10 week summer program that connects students passionate about community defense with public defender offices across the country.

Each fellow has been spending the summer designing and leading outreach projects that build trust between public defender offices and the communities they serve.

Meet this year's Fellows:
🤝 Allyssa Williams → The Legal Aid Society
🤝 Kwasi Bosu → Brooklyn Defender Services
🤝 Tateyanna Nunes → Defender Association of Philadelphia

We're proud to invest in the next generation of community-centered public defense, one fellow at a time!

We're proud to celebrate Aicha Elola, recipient of the Carl Maxey Scholarship and graduate of the National Criminal Defe...
08/11/2026

We're proud to celebrate Aicha Elola, recipient of the Carl Maxey Scholarship and graduate of the National Criminal Defense College (NCDC)'s Trial Practice Institute (TPI) 🎉

The Carl Maxey Scholarship honors the life and legacy of Carl Maxey — a legendary civil rights attorney and defender out of Spokane, Washington — by supporting criminal defense practitioners through TPI, an intensive two-week trial skills program hosted at the University of Iowa College of Law.

This scholarship is about more than trial skills. It's about carrying forward Carl Maxey's legacy of fierce, principled defense for the people who need it most. Aicha, we're proud to see you sharpening your craft and honoring that legacy in the courtroom.

Help us in congratulating Aicha! 👏🏾⚖️

📣 Call for proposals for the 2026 BPDA winter conference!We're hosting our inaugural Winter Virtual Conference, December...
08/05/2026

📣 Call for proposals for the 2026 BPDA winter conference!

We're hosting our inaugural Winter Virtual Conference, December 10-11, and we want YOU to help shape it.

This year's theme, Leading with Power, Defending our Communities, calls us to reflect, learn, and connect as a national community of public defenders.

We're accepting proposals across three tracks:
🔹 Leadership that Transforms
🔹 Defending our Communities
🔹 Race-Conscious Advocacy Skills

Panels, workshops, skills trainings, roundtables, lectures, wellness sessions — bring whatever format fits your session best.

Open to defenders at every stage and in every role: attorneys, social workers, investigators, paralegals, law professors, and the community partners doing this work in solidarity with us.

📅 Proposals due August 31
🔗 Submit here: https://buff.ly/eawCThy

Swipe through to learn more, then tell us how you lead. ➡️

We've been reading your reviews from the 2026 Summer Conference last month, and we hear you loud and clear. You need mor...
07/31/2026

We've been reading your reviews from the 2026 Summer Conference last month, and we hear you loud and clear. You need more spaces like this, one where you can show up fully as yourself, sharpen your craft, and build community with defenders doing this work alongside you.

We're excited to announce our inaugural Winter Conference — "Leading with Power, Defending Our Communities" — going virtual this December 10–11.

This year's conference is built around three integrated learning tracks:

→ Leadership that Transforms: Build the leadership skills to shift culture from the inside
→ Defending Our Communities: Strengthen client-centered advocacy and community partnerships
→ Race-Conscious Advocacy Skills: Sharpen trial and advocacy strategy through a race-conscious lens

We've designed this experience to equip Black public defenders and allies with the tools to lead, advocate, and build community-centered systems of defense.

🗓️ December 10 | 9 am–6 pm ET & December 11 | 9 am–12:30 pm ET
💻 Virtual
🔗 More details and registration coming soon

Address

1901 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Suite 500
Washington D.C., DC
20006

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