Fare well, Alyson

This blog post has good news, bad news, and good news about Alyson Grine, who has served as the School’s defender educator for ten years. During that time, Alyson and I worked closely together on indigent defense education, and I wanted to write this farewell on the School’s behalf. The good news is that she is excited to start her new position this fall as an assistant professor at North Carolina Central University School of Law, and we are excited for her. You can reach her at agrine@nccu.edu. The bad news is that she will be leaving the School, and to put it mildly we are sorry to see her go. Then again, the good news is that she leaves a remarkable record of accomplishments in indigent defense education, on which we can continue to build. What has she done in the past ten years? The more apt question is what hasn’t she done. Alyson has been a course designer. Her annual, multi-day training programs for new misdemeanor and new felony defenders have helped legions of attorneys develop their knowledge and skills. Each year she magically weaved together North Carolina’s public defender attorney conference, a veritable three-ring circus of topics and presenters of significance to new and experienced defenders. To expand training opportunities for indigent defenders, Alyson worked tirelessly with organizations inside and outside North Carolina, including the North Carolina Advocates for Justice, local bar associations, Southern Public Defender Training Center (now, Gideon’s Promise), and public defender organizations in other states. [...]