Bio

Chantá Parker is a Partner with the Management Center where she coaches leaders to be more equitable, sustainable, and results-driven. She is the founding Managing Director of the Neighborhood Defender Service in Detroit where in 2019, she built a client-centered, holistic public defender office for residents of Wayne County. Previously, she served as the Special Counsel for New Initiatives at the Innocence Project in New York, NY. Chantá has over fifteen years of criminal defense experience, having worked as a supervising attorney in the Criminal Defense Practice of the Legal Aid Society’s Brooklyn office, and as a felony trial attorney with the Orleans Public Defenders. As a public defender, Chantá has seen up close the impact of mass incarceration on clients, their families, and their communities and has experienced the harms of mass incarceration both in her professional and personal life.

In 2020, Chantá was named one of Crain’s Detroit 40 under 40 business leaders for her work in building a public defender office from the ground up. Chantá was named a 2015 Council of Urban Professionals Fellow. Chantá is a leader in Gideon’s Promise, a national training program for public defenders that was featured in the award-winning documentary “Gideon’s Army” in 2013. Chantá serves on the board of directors of the Essie Justice Group, a sisterhood of women with incarcerated loved ones, where she has shepherded the growth of Essie from its inception and shares its commitment to justice, Black liberation, and women's leadership.

Born and raised in Savannah, Georgia, Chantá holds a BA in African American History from Spelman College and a JD from the New York University School of Law. Chantá is a member of the State Bar of Michigan, the New York State Bar, the Louisiana State Bar Association, and the State Bar of Georgia.

Sub specialities: Criminal Defense, Mass Incarceration, Bail and Pretrial Detention

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