Evonne M. Silva is the Senior Program Director for Criminal Justice and Workforce Development at Code for America. In this role, she manages program and partnership staff and leads cross-functional teams of engineering, design, and product staff to develop civic technology aimed at transforming the criminal justice and workforce development systems. Towards this end, she oversees forging meaningful partnerships with local and state governments, community-based organizations, and stakeholders across the country; designs and implements impactful policy and advocacy strategies; and advises on service-delivery developments that seek to improve the way governments deliver key services to the people who need it most.
Prior to her current position, Evonne served as Compliance Counsel & Director of People Systems at the ACLU of Northern California (ACLU-NC) where she advised the organization on a range of internal legal matters, managed relationships with outside counsel, and oversaw risk management and compliance programs. In driving process improvements across business functions, she led the HR and IT teams, directed the development of updated organizational policies to promote employee success, and designed growth strategies to attract new talent.
She previously worked as the ACLU-NC’s Legal-Policy Department Manager & Attorney, providing day-to-day management, directing the Law & Policy Internship Program, leading support strategy and managing a team, and designing new programs, processes and workflows to create the infrastructure for staff to thrive and advance the mission of the ACLU-NC.
Before joining the ACLU-NC, Evonne worked as a staff attorney at the East Bay Community Law Center (EBCLC) as the recipient of an Equal Justice Works Fellowship. At EBCLC, Evonne implemented the Immigrant Consumer Justice Project, aimed at defending and advancing the rights of low-income immigrant consumers through direct services, community outreach, policy advocacy, and affirmative litigation.
Evonne has also served as an investigator with the Criminal Justice Clinic at Georgetown University School of Law and paralegal with the Death Penalty Clinic at UC Berkeley School of Law. She previously worked as Policy Program Assistant and Program Associate at the ACLU-NC, coordinating and supporting the affiliate’s program and priority campaigns, including work in the areas of racial justice, death penalty, and police practices. She later led a statewide advocacy initiative as a Nutrition Policy Advocate with California Food Policy Advocates, a statewide advocacy organization that works to improve the health and well-being of low-income Californians by increasing access to nutritious, affordable food.
Evonne is a graduate of UCLA School of Law, where she was selected into the Epstein Program in Public Interest Law and Policy and enrolled in the Critical Race Specialization. While in law school, Evonne served as a judicial extern with the Honorable Edward M. Chen, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California. She also interned with the ACLU of Southern California and California Rural Legal Assistance, worked as a full-time extern at Legal Aid at Work (formerly the Legal Aid Society – Employment Law Center), and served as the Deputy Field Operations Coordinator for the SAFE California campaign. She was appointed to serve as a member on the State Bar of California’s Standing Committee on the Delivery of Legal Service.
She currently serves as a board member of CORO of Northern California. Evonne is a lecturer at UC Berkeley School of Law where she teaches Civil Legal Ethics to second- and third-year law students.
Education
J.D., UCLA School of Law (2013)
Evonne Silva is not teaching any Law courses in Spring 2024.