Public Defender Spotlight

Public Defender Spotlight: The Nominees, Finalists, and Winners of the 2024 PDAP Awards

January 14, 2025 – Our Public Defender Spotlights shout out and celebrate the achievements of individual members of the PDAP community, whether past or recent. If you’d like to nominate a fellow Public Defender (attorney, social service advocate, investigator, mitigator, or support staff member) for a feature, reach out to Anna@PAPublicDefenders.com.

As we all know by now, a Public Defender’s work is never done. Every year, Pennsylvania’s PDs continue to go above and beyond for their clients. Through their actions, they demonstrate courage, tenacity, dedication, and passion for an undeniably challenging profession. 

PDAP’s annual awards give members of our community a chance to nominate colleagues who they think have encapsulated what it means to be an exemplary Public Defender, whether that be through an individual accomplishment or the overall role they play in their office. With the 2024 awards behind us, keep reading to learn more about this past year’s nominees, finalists, and winners.

The Fred Goodman Award (the Rico)

The Rico award is named after attorney Fred Goodman, a longtime PD with the Defender Association of Philadelphia. It is meant for any Public Defender attorney with less than 3 years of experience as a PD.

Winner: Brandon Miller, Defender Association of Philadelphia, nominated by Chief Defender Keisha Hudson: “[Brandon] is currently in the Special Litigation Division. This is a new unit created to ensure attorneys are getting training and exposure to Rape preliminary hearings, and Domestic Violence trials. Brandon is in court or meeting with clients – each day of the week. These are challenging cases to handle, and Brandon is doing such a fantastic job.”

Winner: Kaitlyn Mills, York County, nominated by First Assistant Caty Houtman: “Kaitlyn is extremely dedicated to her clients and to making sure justice is done. Kaitlyn was assigned to [an Aggravated Assault case with a mentally ill and autistic client]. Rather than just waiting for the hearing, she went to see the client in the hospital [and] found out that the client loves playing Uno, the one thing that calms this client down. So Kaitlyn played several games of Uno with her at the hospital while she discussed the legal issues in her case.”

Finalist: Lydia Shields, Chester County: “She recently secured a not guilty at a DUI bench trial. The Commonwealth nolle prossed a retail theft case because she demonstrated that the client had a hand tattoo, and the person in the footage committing the theft [did not]. [The client] believed his job would fire him if he were found guilty of theft, so the dismissal saved his job without the risk of going to trial.”

Finalist: Nathan Vonderheide, Chester County, a member of the 2024 inaugural Emerging Leaders class: “Nathan is passionate and dedicated to his clients. Nathan does an excellent job at keeping in contact with his clients which is not easy because DUI court has a very high caseload. His clients love him. He won two separate Rule 600(A) dismissal motions and many pretrial motions.”

Our nominee pool was exceptionally large this year, with fourteen total submissions across nine counties. Also nominated were Molly Campbell (Allegheny), Abigail Conforti Barnett (Lancaster), David Gastfriend (Bucks), Sarah Hampton (Allegheny), Shannon Haupt (Allegheny), Gabriella Lipschitz (Philadelphia), Victoria Martin (Bradford), Jaqueline Pitts (Schuylkill), Devon Potts (Delaware), and Andrew Quist (Chester).

The David R. Crowley Award

The Crowley award is named after Dave Crowley, the longstanding Chief Defender of Centre County. The Crowley award is for a Public Defender attorney with 3-10 years of experience as a PD.

Winner: Stephen Dodd, Chester County: “Steve tried several cases including a very difficult sexual assault case. When one of the nominators tried to get details about this year from him, he said that although honored to be nominated, he was sure that someone else was more deserving, which pretty much sums up Steve Dodd. Steve will win a jury trial and think he could have done better. He is patient to a fault with all his clients.”

Finalist: Casey Bogner, Chief Defender, Franklin County: “She is highly respected in both the Public Defender’s and District Attorney’s offices in Franklin County and is constantly mentoring other attorneys. Her in-depth knowledge of the legal processes, court procedures, and networks of department experts makes her the priceless hub of the office.”

Finalist: Anna Hinchman, Delaware County: “With just four years under her belt, Anna has proven herself to be a fierce trial lawyer. A colleague with decades of trial experience themselves commented: ‘I’ve learned so much watching her cross witnesses. She uses their prior statements against them perfectly.’”

Finalist: Lauren Zitsch, Defender Association of Philadelphia: “She is a true warrior, with excellent client management skills. She is a brilliant attorney and deserves recognition for how hard she works. She is always prepared and polished despite her long hours and tough caseload. She has tried numerous juries with very difficult subject matter like kid witnesses. She won most of them too.”

The Life Preserver Award

The Life Preserver Award honors our non-attorney community, and is an award for any PD Social Worker, social service advocate, investigator, mitigator, paralegal, or other member of Defender support staff. This year, so many people nominated their fellow Public Defenders for this award that we split our nominees into three categories!

Winner: Sabrina Albright, Delaware County: “Sabrina is truly a ray of sunshine at Delco. She works extremely hard, is always there to lend a helping hand (with literally anything) and does it all with a smile on her face. She is so so so efficient, hardworking, and a joy to be around. Even though Sabrina has not been with Delco long, she is a staple there and has even been given the task of training new hires that have come in.”

Winner: Eileen Kosiak, Defender Association of Philadelphia, nominated by Chief Defender Keisha Hudson: “Eileen took the time to talk to [a young client previously in Philadelphia on a dependency placement], to ask him questions about his life, to encourage him and to identify ways to support him going forward. She was not required to do so, it is not her role in the Unit or the office but is an example of the care and kindness she proceeds with in all of her interactions. It was a joy to watch those interactions and to know we can count on Eileen to just be Eileen.”

Finalist: Alena Chulick, Allegheny County: “Alena is the Project Manager for Project Rehabilitate: a first in the nation initiative to support individuals suffering from substance abuse disorder or in recovery. The project is completely dependent on Alena’s diligence, record keeping, and tenacity. Alena runs the OPD’s most successful initiative and does so with no expectation of recognition. She quietly but effectively and tirelessly works for our clients with little reward.”

Finalist: Michelle Kreitzer, Snyder County: “Michelle is the glue keeping the office together and oil keeping the office running. She has been the administrative assistant for Snyder County’s PD office since the office came into existence more than 30 years ago. In addition to [her main tasks], Michelle also processes all applications for representation, assigns attorneys, opens files, processes and sorts all office communications.”

Also nominated for the core staff Life Preserver Award were Marina Bennetti (Blair), Kelly Brenner (Chester), Abaigeal Brody (Allegheny), Tracy Camerato (Allegheny), Leslie Dattoli (Elk), Hannah Semon (Allegheny), and Linda Wolf (Allegheny).

Winner: Alyssa Biederman, Delaware County, nominated by First Assistant Lee Awbrey: “Alyssa stood ground in a heated battle over possession of evidence, facing threats of contempt while a sheriff postured to block her egress, refusing to hand over a client’s phone absent an explicit order from the court. Alyssa goes above and beyond to respond to urgent issues in order to get the best outcome for our clients. She jumps into the fray with active trial teams.”

Finalist: Kay Hughes, Allegheny County: “Kay developed and started her own project on tracking ‘bad cops’ in our area. We have an influx of clients who have sustained numerous injuries during their arrest that scream use of force/police brutality issues. [Thanks to Kay], we are able to track cases by arresting officers that provides insight on defendants’ sex, race, etc, in correlation to these ‘bad cops.’ She spearheaded this project all on her own time at home while still maintaining her daily responsibilities.”

Finalist: Amanda Singer, Allegheny County: “Recently, Amanda volunteered to step up and assume additional responsibilities that were way beyond the scope of an investigator. The position Amanda stepped up for is an essential role at our office that handles gathering and sending out new potential case assignments for recently incarcerated clients, conducting conflict checks, etc. Without Amanda’s help, a core mechanism in the Allegheny County office would have fallen apart.”

Finalist: Stephen Vangelo, Lehigh County: “Steve assigns cases AND splits the workload, ensuring that the workload isn’t too much, answers questions when investigators in his unit get stuck, keeps them abreast of his investigations and ensures that they have access to training. Steve’s work and assistance in multiple cases resulted in dismissals, lowered charges and better results in plea bargaining for Lehigh’s clients this year.”

Our nominees also included Collin Delsite (Allegheny) and Jessica Kline (Schuylkill).

Winner: Sarah Weir, York County: “She has become respected in the courtroom to the extent that several judges have started suggesting that Sarah become involved in a case. She has built a shelving unit in her office filled with necessary items for indigent clients such as socks, toiletries, outdoor clothing, etc. She finds the clients to have funny stories, to be interesting, or sweet – she sees the humanity in everyone and does not stop until she has found a way to make their lives better.”

Finalist: Kate Rowland, Defender Association of Philadelphia: “She has been in many roles while at Defender, including the Child Advocacy Unit, Adult Social Services Unit, and now the Special Defense and Homicide Unit. Kate not only uses her expertise to write in depth and compelling mitigation reports, but she also acts as a mentor and unofficial trainer for newer social workers and mitigators. She is a team player and works effectively with her fellow attorneys and investigators.”

Finalist: Stephanie Tecza, Allegheny County: “Stephanie goes above and beyond for each client she works with. She has helped our clients enroll in school, get set up with special needs support in school, and advocates for our clients to make sure their schools are actively supporting them. Her testimony was essential for the defense position that [a client] was not in need of treatment, supervision, and rehabilitation through juvenile court.”

Finalist: Katie Wagner, Chester County: “Katie has an incredible knowledge of the social service area and freely shares and employs that information. She is described as a warm and friendly individual, dedicated to the cause of helping indigent clients and always willing to take on a challenge, and as an asset to the Chester County Defenders. Katie also authored the Mental Health/IDD manual everyone received this year from PDAP and Delco.”

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PDAP thanks everyone who took the time to nominate someone for an award in 2024, with special thanks to our Awards Committee. The compelling and heartfelt nature of the nominations – including first-time submissions from Blair, Elk, and Schuylkill Counties – made these decisions very difficult. We hope you continue to show up for your fellow Public Defenders and celebrate their wins, no matter how small.