Biography: Kathi Grasso

Kathi Grasso is the Director of the Concentration of Federal Efforts Program at the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP). In this role, she serves as the Designated Federal Official for the Coordinating Council on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention and the Federal Advisory Committee on Juvenile Justice. Prior to assuming this position, she was OJJDP's Senior Policy and Legal Advisor; Director of OJJDP's Research and Program Development Division; Director of the Child and Adolescent Health Law Program of the American Bar Association's Center on Children and the Law; and Chief and Managing Attorney of the Legal Aid Bureau's Child Advocacy Unit in Baltimore, Maryland. She has also served as an attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice's Office on Violence Against Women (OVW), Legal Aid Bureau's Southern Maryland Office, and the Maryland Disability Law Center. Ms. Grasso has extensive litigation experience, has published in the child advocacy field, and has contributed to numerous national advisory groups addressing societal concerns. She was awarded her Juris Doctorate from Catholic University in 1980 and her Bachelor of Arts degree, Phi Beta Kappa, from Douglass College of Rutgers University in 1977. She is a member of the District of Columbia and Maryland Bars.