The Bronx Defenders
Anna served as the Director of Communications at The Bronx Defenders, a nationally recognized 300+ person public defender office located in the South Bronx. The organization pioneered the model of holistic defense, designed to ensure their team goes wherever their clients go — spanning criminal, family, immigration, housing and civil courts. In that role, she led communications strategies to advance reform and positive outcomes for clients, through individually tailored strategies, impact litigation, and coalition-led campaigns. She also created the organization's brand guide and internal procedures for decision-making around affirmative and reactive communications.
Impact Litigation
Anna led communications around impact litigation designed to advance reform at the state and federal levels, from initial filings to settlements. In order to ensure public awareness, impact, and accountability, she consistently secured media coverage in priority publications including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Daily News, AMNY, The Marshall Project, The Appeal, and The New York Law Journal. The cases include:
a class action against the City of New York and the NYPD for illegally using and sharing information from sealed arrest records in defiance of long-standing privacy laws (The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Appeal, The New York Daily News, The New York Law Journal, amNewYork, WNYC, NY1, and Courthouse News Service);
a settlement to ensure that Bronx Courts would uphold people’s constitutional rights to due process and speedy trials (The New York Times);
settlements requiring the NYPD to to reform its unconstitutional practices around withholding property seized during arrests and requiring detailed reporting — for the first time — about the millions of dollars of property it seizes (WNYC, The New York Daily News, The New York Law Journal, The Wall Street Journal); and
a class action lawsuit challenging prolonged detentions by ICE before any court appearances (WNYC, Documented).
Issue Advocacy
Anna supported staff in raising public consciousness around injustices suffered by clients and advocated for solutions. This included the criminalization of motherhood for black and brown women and injustices within the child welfare system (The New York Times, Audible, RISE, The Appeal, Jezebel, NYT Letter to Editor); ICE’s refusal to bring clients to immigration court (The New York Times, Documented); criminal justice reform (The New York Daily News, NYT Opinion, AMNY); and racial disparities in marijuana arrests and punishment (The New York Times, NYT Opinion).
Victor J. Blue for The New York Times
Client Advocacy
Anna supported individual clients in harnessing communications and press as a means of telling their story and advocating for improved outcomes. This included driving awareness through a New York Times article on youth, including a man named Steven Espinal, who were being sent outside of New York City and kept in solitary confinement; a man named Miguel Almonte who almost died due to lack of access to medical care while in ICE detention; and a woman named Aida Reyes facing eviction by the New York City Housing Authority.
Impact Evaluation
Anna led the announcement of a study, “The Effects of Holistic Defense on Criminal Justice Outcomes,” which found that The Bronx Defenders’ unique model of holistic defense significantly reduces incarceration rates, sentence length, and pre-trial detention, saving taxpayer dollars, without harming public safety. She secured press coverage in The Marshall Project, WNYC, and Pod Save the People. She also designed infographics, social media graphics and supporting collateral.