The Commission is very pleased to announce that on August 14, 2023, Maraleen Shields, Esq. will be formally installed as Executive Director. Ms. Shields was selected to lead the Commission after a comprehensive search for a new director following the retirement of Lisette M. McCormick, who had served in the same capacity since the Commission’s inception in 2005. A graduate of Kenyon College and the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, Ms. Shields comes to the Commission having most recently worked as a healthcare and litigation attorney with the Lehigh Valley-based Fitzpatrick Lentz & Bubba, P.C., where she became the first person of color to earn shareholder status in the law firm’s 35-year history.
Like her predecessor, Ms. Shields will direct the implementation of the recommendations contained in the Final Report of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court Committee on Racial and Gender Bias in the Justice System, published in 2003. To read more about Ms. Shields’s background and impressive credentials, review her bio here.