Cassandra is the Managing Director, Legal Representation Programs at Acacia, where she manages the organizations Learning and Development Teams, leads the Children’s Holistic Immigration Representation Project team, and oversees the Attorney Recruitment Project. Prior to joining Acacia, Cassandra was a federal public defender at the Federal Defenders of San Diego, where she regularly represented individuals charged with 8 U.S.C. 1326 – illegal reentry after deportation – and often litigated the constitutional validity of the underlying removal. She took many of those cases to trial over the years, coming up with creative ways to tell client stories and challenge the government’s burden of proof. Before joining Defenders, Cassandra was an EJW fellow at Centro Legal de la Raza in Oakland where she started a project focused on providing legal representation to detained non-citizens. Cassandra holds a B.A. in history from San Francisco State, a J.D. from U.C. Davis School of Law. Based in San Diego, Cassandra enjoys surfing, yoga, and car camping with her family.