Support Our Advocacy Efforts

California's indigent defenders are on the front lines of the system every day, fighting to protect constitutional rights, for racial justice, and to ensure that every person, regardless of wealth or status, is treated with dignity in the courts.

CPDA's advocacy work turns those values into statewide change: better funding for indigent defense offices and laws that keep people out of cages and connected to their communities. This is true public safety. Your donation directly fuels this work, amplifying defender voices in the Capitol and safeguarding the rights of the most vulnerable. Together, we can transform our system into one rooted in fairness, humanity, and hope.

Please note that because these contributions are intended to support our lobbying, advocacy, and legislative-affairs work they are not tax-deductible as charitable contributions for federal income tax purposes.

The Mowrer Fellowship in Public Defense Advocacy

Fellowship is often understood as something spatial: people working alongside one another, sharing ideas, proximity, and the daily labor of a common cause. But fellowship can also be thought of as temporal — one generation mentoring the next, passing their commitment to justice, equity, and the struggle on to the next generation, serving as models. When we draw inspiration and hope from our ancestors or past leaders, we are fellows together with them, whether they are still with us or not. Fellowship over time is how a movement sustains itself beyond any single moment or leader.

Glen Mowrer is one of the early leaders of the California Public Defenders Association and a past President whose career embodies the values of public defense at its best: excellence, independence, a deep commitment to community, and a willingness to confront those in power whenever and however those in power are hurting the vulnerable. Glen began his career at the Los Angeles County Public Defender's Office, serving as a Deputy Public Defender, a member of the Special Trials Division, and later as Deputy in Charge of the Compton Office. He went on to serve as Head of the Santa Barbara County Public Defender's Office for 24 years — at the time, both the youngest person to hold that role and the longest-serving.

Beyond CPDA, and after retirement, Glen's commitment to justice has extended through initiatives like The Legal Project, providing pro bono representation to people charged with infractions who were otherwise ineligible for counsel, and through the Mowrer Homeless Justice Fund, supporting agencies serving unhoused people in Santa Barbara County. Glen's leadership reflects a lifelong belief that public defense is more than a profession — it is a commitment to defending and serving others.

Glen reached out with an extraordinary gift: an endowment to fund a fellowship so CPDA could pay an intern — whether a law student, recent graduate, community advocate, formerly incarcerated individual, or other qualifying applicant — to work with CPDA and engage in legislative, policy, and appellate work that strengthens public defense statewide. Because of Glen's endowment, this fellowship can be paid, expanding who can participate in this vital work.