Angela Chan oversees our Confront + Advocate team, which confronts state violence and advocates for community empowerment. The team collaborates with community partners to lead campaigns to pass local and state policies that dismantle the carceral system, and invest public resources in support services and opportunities for our system-impacted clients and other vulnerable communities. The Confront team also uncovers and tracks misconduct by law enforcement and engages in strategic communications to challenge state-sponsored violence and demand change. Before joining the Public Defender’s Office, Angela was the Policy Director and a Senior Staff Attorney at Advancing Justice – Asian Law Caucus (“ALC”), where she worked for over 15 years. She joined the ALC as a Soros Justice Fellow in 2006 and launched and managed the first Criminal Justice Reform Program at an Asian and Pacific Islander civil rights organization in the country. At the ALC, Angela collaborated with the Public Defender’s Office and represented limited English proficient families with youth detained in San Francisco’s juvenile hall to advocate for their release and for culturally competent and language-accessible services. In 2008, Angela co-founded FREESF, a local immigrant rights coalition, and led campaigns to pass three ordinances that strengthened San Francisco’s Sanctuary Ordinance by ending the transfer of youth and adults by local law enforcement to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”). She also co-founded the ICE out of CA statewide coalition to pass the TRUST Act, TRUTH Act, and CA Values Act to protect thousands of immigrants from being turned over to ICE by local law enforcement across the state every year. Angela also drafted and led the passage of the Pardon and Commutation Reform Act of 2018 to increase the accessibility and transparency of the state clemency process.
Angela served on the San Francisco Police Commission, and was involved in passing and implementing Department General Orders and resolutions to improve language access, juvenile rights, immigrant rights, and the Crisis Intervention Team program. Angela was named a Local Hero by the San Francisco Bay Guardian, honored with a Monarch Award by the Pacific Asian American Women Bay Area Coalition, selected for a 40 Under 40 Leadership Award from the New Leaders Council, and named a Best Under 40 attorney by the National Asian Pacific Bar Association. Angela received her B.A. from Occidental College and her J.D from Harvard Law School.