Lisa Vavonese

Lisa Bailey Vavonese co-leads Research-Practice Strategies at the Center for Court Innovation. Lisa works in partnership with Center researchers to conduct original research and provides expert assistance to jurisdictions across the country. She translates research for criminal legal system actors and elevates the importance of data and research as a tool for actionable change. Lisa also leads the Center’s work to enhance indigent defense practice, and consults on local jurisdictions’ efforts to protect Sixth Amendment rights. Her previous work at the Center includes the administration of federal, state, and local grants for problem-solving initiatives in upstate New York. Prior to joining the Center, Ms. Vavonese was the director of the Reentry Clinic at the Center for Community Alternatives in Syracuse, and an assistant public defender in Monroe County, New York. Ms. Vavonese also assisted refugees in Tanzania and domestic violence survivors in Malaysia, and assisted in trial chambers at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague, Netherlands. Ms. Vavonese received her B.A. from Hartwick College, and her J.D. from the State University of New York at Buffalo Law School.