Premal Dharia

Premal Dharia is the Executive Director of the Institute to End Mass Incarceration, a position held since February 2021. Prior to this role, Premal was the Founder and Director of the Defender Impact Initiative from 2019 to February 2021, and served as a Criminal Justice Fellow at the Reflective Democracy Campaign in 2019. Additional experience includes serving as the Director of Litigation at Civil Rights Corps from 2017 to 2019, Defense Counsel for the Military Commission between 2016 and 2017, and Assistant Federal Public Defender in the Office of the Federal Public Defender, District of Maryland from 2012 to 2016. Premal also held the position of International Fellow, Public Defense at The International Legal Foundation in 2014, and served as a Public Defender and Supervising Attorney at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia from 2003 to 2012. Academically, Premal earned a Doctor of Law (JD) from the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School in 2003 and a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in History and African-American Studies from Brown University in 2000.