Joshua Dohan

Josh is Director of the Youth Advocacy Division, the juvenile defender branch of the Massachusetts statewide public defender agency, the Committee for Public Counsel Services. Josh became a public defender in 1988 and joined the Youth Advocacy Project, the predecessor organization to the Youth Advocacy Division (YAD) at its inception in 1992 as its first staff attorney. Using a Positive Youth Development Approach, Josh and his team of 70 staff members (including lawyers, social workers, and administrators) and about 500 private assigned counsel work with children and youth in the Massachusetts juvenile justice system to advance their legal and human rights, promote their healthy development, and help them achieve their legal and life goals. YAD has been recognized by the U.S. Department of Justice, the National Legal Aid and Defender Association, The National Juvenile Defender Center, the Juvenile Detention Alternative Initiative, the MacArthur Foundation, and others for excellence in juvenile defense. 

Josh is President of the Board for the Youth Advocacy Foundation, a member of the Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice Leadership Forum, and a member of the Community Advisory Board of the Institute on Race and Justice at Northeastern University. A returned Peace Corps volunteer, Josh served as an ILF International Fellow in the West Bank in 2019. He received his A.B. from Harvard College and his J.D. from Northeastern University School of Law.