Casey Gwinn
National Family Justice Center Alliance, President
Casey Gwinn, J.D. serves as the President of the National Family Justice Center Alliance. Casey
has been recognized by The American Lawyer magazine as one of the top 45 public lawyers in
America.
Casey served for eight years as the elected City Attorney of San Diego from 1996 to 2004. Prior
to entering elected office, Casey founded City Attorney’s Child Abuse and Domestic Violence
Unit, leading the Unit from 1986 to 1996 – prosecuting both misdemeanor and felony cases. In
1993, the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges recognized his Child
Abuse/Domestic Violence Unit as the model domestic violence prosecution unit in the nation.
During Casey’s tenure, the Unit's work was honored for playing a major role in the 90 percent
drop in domestic violence homicides in the City of San Diego over the last twenty years. San
Diego now has the lowest domestic violence homicide rate of any major city in the nation. In
1986, Casey co-founded the San Diego Task Force on Domestic Violence. In 1991, he founded
the San Diego Domestic Violence Council. The Task Force and the Council worked closely in
partnership with the YWCA of San Diego County and the YWCA hosted the task force in its
earliest years of development.
In 2002, Casey saw his vision of a comprehensive, “one stop shop” for services to victims of
family violence become a reality in San Diego. In partnership with former San Diego Police
Chief David Bejarano and current Chief Bill Lansdowne, he led the effort to open the nationally
acclaimed San Diego Family Justice Center. The Family Justice Center opened its doors in
downtown San Diego on October 10, 2002. In January, 2003, Casey and the San Diego Family
Justice Center were profiled on the Oprah Winfrey Show as leading the way for other
communities in its coordinated approach to co-locating services for victims of domestic violence,
child abuse, elder abuse, and sexual assault. In October, 2003, President George W. Bush
announced a national initiative to begin creating Family Justice Centers across the country and
asked Casey to provide leadership to the effort. Casey currently oversees a national technical
assistance team that supports all existing and developing Family Justice Centers in the United
States and around the world, speaks in communities across America, and provides leadership to
the YWCA of San Diego County.
Casey also serves on the Board of the YWCA of San Diego County, the YWCA manages the
Becky’s House shelter, transitional, and affordable housing programs for victims of domestic
violence and their children and programs for homeless women and families, legal services for
domestic violence victims, after school programs, a city school for children housed in shelter,
and other social service and support programs for women and children. He is currently focused
on redeveloping the YWCA’s historic downtown building at 10th and C to create a unique block
of services for women, children, and families and overseeing the YWCA’s Centennial
Celebration in 2008.
Casey has served on the U.S. Attorney General’s National Advisory Committee on Violence
Against Women and the American Bar Association Commission on Domestic Violence. He
recently chaired the California Attorney General’s Task Force on Domestic Violence (See the
report at www.safestart.org). He also served on the congressionally created Department of
Defense task force, studying the handling of family violence throughout the Department of
Defense. He has authored a host of articles on domestic violence and has co-authored two books
on the Family Justice Center movement. The first book entitled “Hope for Hurting Families”
(www.volcanopress.com) calls for the creation of Family Justice Centers across America to help
hurting and violent families. His second book, co-authored with Gael Strack, was released in
April 2007, “Hope for Hurting Families II: How to Start a Family Justice Center in Your
Community” (Operation for Hope Publishing – www.familyjusticecenter.org.). Recently, Gael
and Casey have authored a third on-line book, published in Arabic, focused on developing colocated
service centers in the Middle East.
Casey has received many local and national awards, including the Stephen L. Lewis Lecturer of
Merit Award from the National College of District Attorneys, the San Diego Domestic Violence
Council’s Lifetime Achievement Award, the Women’s International Living Legacy Award, the
Men’s Leadership Forum Hometown Hero Award, Sharp Healthcare’s Excellence in Education
Award, the San Diego Press Club’s Diogenes Award, the San Diego Mediation Center’s
Peacemaker Award, the San Diego Ecumenical Council’s Christian Unity Award, Lifetime
Television’s Times Square Salute Award, Advocate of the Year Award presented on Disability
Independence Day from the disabled community in San Diego, and most recently, in 2007, the
California Peace Prize from the California Wellness Foundation.
One of Casey’s great personal passions is Camp HOPE, the unique camping initiative of the San
Diego Family Justice Center Foundation. Camp HOPE is the first specialized camp in America
focused exclusively on children exposed to domestic violence. The camp is now in its fifth year
of operation (www.camphopesandiego.org). He is the founder and a dedicated volunteer as the
camp continues to develop.
Casey and his wife, Beth, have three children: Kelly, 21; Karianne, 20; and Chris, 18.
Casey is an honors graduate of Stanford University and UCLA School of Law.
