Staff Directory

Washington Defender Association
110 Prefontaine Place S., Suite 610
Seattle, Washington 98104
Tel.: (206) 623-4321
Fax: (206) 623-5420

Toll-Free Felony/Misdemeanor Assistance: (877) 925-6012

Ann Benson (360) 385-2538

Click on the name of the person you wish to contact below to send them a message.

Adminstrative Staff

Christie Hedman, Executive Director

Travis Stearns, Deputy Director

Travis has been primarily a public defender his entire career.  After graduating from George Washington University, he worked for New York County Legal Aid Society before working briefly in corporate law.  He moved to Washington and was a public defender in Whatcom County for ten years.  He has handled almost every type of case, from jumping a turnstile to homicides. Travis develops the training program, testifies before the legislature and submits amicus briefs on behalf of WDA.

Alycia Delmore, Program Assistant

Alycia happily joined WDA in December 2008. She has deep ties to the theatre community in Seattle, having worked in the production department at the Seattle Repertory Theatre and as an actor at many theatres in town. She's been in several movies you've never heard of. She has also worked as a professional baker, a juvenile detention corrections officer, an office manager for a private investigator, and a theatre teacher.  She is married with one cat, and has a wicked sense of humor.

Technical Assistance

Cindy Arends, Felony Resource Attorney

Cindy has 14 years experience in public defense and has a varied background, having worked with all types of cases, from low level crimes to capital offenses. She has experience with alternative courts and mental competency hearings, and is death penalty certified.  She is able to assist you with your felony cases, from the planning stages through to developing a sentencing strategy.

Magda Baker, Misdemeanor Resource Attorney

Magda graduated from UW Law School and has been a public defender her entire career.  She has worked in both trial and appellate offices.  She specializes in practice issues relating to DWLS, DUI and the exclusionary rule.  She is available to help you with all of your questions relating to misdemeanor cases.

Washington Defender Association Immigration Project

Ann Benson, Immigration Project Supervising Attorney

Ann Benson is the Directing Attorney for the Washington Defender Association’s Immigration Project.  She provides training and technical assistance to defense attorneys, judges and prosecutors to understand the immigration consequences of criminal convictions facing noncitizen defendants and their families.  Additionally, Ann works collaboratively with organizations in Washington State and throughout the country to defend the due process rights of immigrant defendants and to reverse the increasing trend of criminalizing immigrant communities.  Along the way Ann has worked as the Legal Director of the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project and taught immigration law at the University of Washington School of Law.  She has served on the Board of Directors for the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild, One America (formerly Hate Free Zone) and the National Network to End Violence Against Immigrant Women.  In 2005 Ann received the Lexis Nexis Daniel Levy Memorial Award for Outstanding Achievement in Immigration Law. 2009 she was honored with the “Friend of the Judiciary” award from the Washington Women Lawyers Association.

Jonathan Moore, Immigration Resource Specialist

Jonathan Moore has worked with people in immigration proceedings since 1983.  He worked as a paralegal at Proyecto Libertad, in Harlingen, Texas, with mostly detained Central-American asylum-seekers, from 1983 until 1990. From 1985-1987 he also  worked for the Rio Grande Defense Committee, on legal defense of South Texas sanctuary workers.  He worked in Seattle, at the Joint Legal Task Force – Hispanic Immigration Program and its successor, the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, mainly on deportation defense,  from 1990- 2005.  Jonathan Moore was accredited by the Board of Immigration Appeals through NWIRP from 1993 until 2005. He currently works at the Washington Defender Association Immigration Project, supporting public defenders and defense lawyers on issues related to the immigration consequences of criminal convictions. He is a currently a Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) accredited representative through the WDA.

Email WDA: wda@defensenet.org