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2023 Individual Boar...

Home > 2023 Individual Board Member Elections
2023 Individual Board Member Elections

2023 Individual Board Member Elections

The WDA board is pleased to nominate the following slate of individual member representative candidates for election to the WDA board. Their terms will be for two years starting at the June board meeting. You may vote for all three candidates, regardless of which division you are in. Please note: each WDA member eligible to vote can only vote once and must enter their first and last name to be able to do so. However, all voting will be kept anonymous. Voting will be closed at noon on June 29, 2023.

Division I, Position II
Over the last six years, I have had the privilege of serving on the WDA board, and I am excited to again put forth my nomination. I have represented indigent clients for 28 of my 31 years as a criminal defense attorney. I went to law school solely to do this work. I am committed to this client population as am I to the people who do the work. It would be an honor to return to an organization that provides assistance to indigent defenders.
Division II, Position II
WDA is integral to the success of indigent defense representation across Washington. As a career public defender (26+ years), I would be honored to serve on the WDA Board of Directors as the Division 2 Representative. Having practiced in both Eastern and Southwest Washington, in both organized public defense offices in Spokane and Cowlitz Counties and as an indigent defense contractor in Clark County, I have a unique perspective on statewide issues and the challenges attorneys face across the state. I am active in the WDA/WACDL Legislative Committee and in addressing challenges in representation of those with behavioral health concerns.
Division III, Position II
Kendra Lotstein fights for families to stay together or reunify quickly in criminal and dependency/termination cases in Eastern Washington with an emphasis in Grant and Asotin counties. As a continuing member of the WDA, she is passionate about reforming the broken criminal justice and child welfare systems in Washington State, which continue to perpetuate intergenerational trauma, poverty, and despair among poor communities and communities of color. She graduated in 2014 cum laude from the University of Idaho School of Law with an emphasis in Federal Indian Law after serving as Editor-in-Chief of the Idaho Law Review. After clerking for two years at Division II of the Washington State Court of Appeals, Kendra jumped into public defense with the Spokane County Public Defender's Office representing clients in child welfare and criminal cases - ultimately leading her to open up her own firm focusing entirely on parents' defense in 2017. Since then Kendra has worked hard to become a subject-matter expert in the field, and she looks forward to bringing a multi-faceted perspective on Division III to the WDA board. She is particularly interested in how the overcharging of criminal offenses breaks up the nuclear family and overburdens public resources, as well as the degradation of the right to effective assistance of counsel based on a lack of State transparency in dependency and termination cases.