Catherine Pierce
Acting Director
Office on Violence Against
Women, U.S. Department of Justice
Catherine Pierce currently serves
as Acting Director of the United States Department of Justice, Office
on Violence Against Women (OVW). She was designated as Acting Director
of OVW by President Barack Obama on January, 20 2009. Prior to this
appointment, she served as an OVW Deputy Director responsible for
public outreach and communications and for launching OVW’s
Sexual Assault Services Program and the Culturally and Linguistically
Specific Services Program. Ms. Pierce also served as Acting Director
of OVW from January through October 2001. Since joining OVW in 1995
as one of its original founding staff members, Ms. Pierce was named
Deputy Director in 1997. Her duties included developing new grant
programs created by the Violence Against Women Act, creating OVW’s
technical assistance program, overseeing numerous demonstration
initiatives, and implementing a comprehensive effort to measure
the effectiveness of OVW’s grant programs.
From 2005 to 2007, she held the position of Senior
Advisor to the Ambassador-at-Large and Director of the Office to
Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons at the U.S. Department
of State.
Before joining OVW, Ms. Pierce directed the “Summer
of Safety” program, a predecessor to AmeriCorps, for the Corporation
for National and Community Service from 1994 to 1995. Prior to that,
she served as a deputy at the State Justice Institute (SJI) and
oversaw the development of SJI’s education and training initiatives.
Before her work at SJI, she was actively involved in the field of
criminal and juvenile justice addressing the differential treatment
of women in prison and young women in the juvenile justice system;
the quality of education provided to young men and women in juvenile
correctional facilities; and the vital role the arts can play in
the lives of young people.
Ms. Pierce has received numerous U.S. government
awards, including a Special Commendation from the Office of Justice
Programs in 2001. She also represented the Department of Justice
as a civilian member of the Department of Defense Task Force on
Domestic Violence from 2000 to 2004.
Ms. Pierce received her Bachelor of Arts in Education
from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She has five grown
children.
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