Could you tell us a little bit about you and your relationship to the district?

I’m a public defender, and that’s what I’ve been doing for the last 20 years in New York, working and defending families from deportation, from eviction, and really helping them navigate the broken systems that our government has to offer them. Not only have I done individual representation of thousands of New Yorkers at critical stages, I’ve also been a builder of creating new models of representation of care that we call holistic defense, the idea of helping community members stabilize their lives and also help meet their future goals, whether that is through accessing housing or healthcare or employment, but really letting them be the guides for their own story.

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