ANNA SHADDAE RODRIGUEZ

Public Defender, Committee for Public Counsel Services

Age: 27

Heritage: Dominican 

 

Anna Shaddae Rodriguez immigrated from the Dominican Republic and got to where she is through hard work as well as the help from the communities that she belongs to. The most influential person in her life is her father. In Anna’s eyes, her father is an intelligent and passionate man, whom given different circumstances could have made a significant impact on this world. This has inspired Anna to always make the best of the opportunities available to her. Anna is also heavily influenced by people who do criminal justice and prison reform work. Her belief is that having compassion for people that have been shunned by society is really important but doesn't always come easy.

 

Anna studied legal ethnography at Hampshire College. After her undergraduate career, she worked at a non-profit that helps bring policy debate teams to Boston Public Schools. Two years later, Anna decided to pursue her dreams and began studying at the Northeastern University School of Law. 

 

Currently, Anna is a public defender. Being Latina has greatly influenced her career. She believes that being a first generation immigrant in this country forced her to advocate for herself and those around her at a young age. For Anna, she has been honing a lot of the core skills it takes to do advocacy work since she was a kid.

 

Ultimately Anna’s future career goal is simple: she wants to be the best public defender she can be. For Anna, she has one of the most important jobs in the world and wants to dedicate as much of herself to it as she can. Her future personal goals are to strengthen her relationships with people that she loves and unapologetically work on healing from past trauma.