Biography   
 
Susan Weld Shaffer, Esq.    
 
PSA Director     
   
 
Susan W. Shaffer, Director, D.C . PSAMs. Shaffer has been the Director of the Pretrial Services Agency for the District of Columbia since 1997. Prior to joining the Agency as Deputy Director in February 1995, Ms. Shaffer was the Director of the American Bar Association’s Criminal Justice Standards Committee. She also has served as a Staff Attorney of the American Civil Liberties Union Project on National Security, a Staff Attorney of the District of Columbia Public Defender Service Mental Health Division, and as an Associate in the Rochester, New York, law firm of Emmelyn Logan-Baldwin, Esq., specializing in employment discrimination litigation. 

Ms. Shaffer graduated cum laude from Pomona College in Claremont, California, where she earned her B.A. degree in Government. She received her J.D. from the State University of New York in Buffalo, New York, and is a member of the Bar Associations of the District of Columbia and New York State.

Awarded the U.S. Department of Justice’s designation as an “Enhanced Pretrial Services Program,” the D.C. Pretrial Services Agency frequently has served as a model for criminal justice administrators in other jurisdictions. The Council for Court Excellence has recognized Ms. Shaffer’s work by selecting her to receive the Justice Potter Stewart Award in 2000 on behalf of the District of Columbia Superior Court Drug Intervention Program (Drug Court) for making valuable contributions to the quality of community life throughout the District of Columbia.

Ms. Shaffer received the Member of the Year Award in 2002 from the National Association of Pretrial Services Agencies (NAPSA) in recognition of her contribution to the goals of the NAPSA. In 2006, she received NAPSA’s most prestigious honor, the Ennis J. Olgiati Award, in recognition of her lifetime achievements and contributions to public service and the field of pretrial services. As PSA Director, Ms. Shaffer also is a member of the District of Columbia’s Criminal Justice Coordinating Council, which serves to bring criminal justice agency directors together to work collaboratively to improve the criminal justice system in the District of Columbia.