Executive Team

Prudence Beidler Carr is the Director of the American Bar Association’s Center on Children and the Law, where she manages a team of attorneys and core staff who work on children’s law projects throughout the country. Prudence joined the ABA Center in July 2016 and brings a background in government, nonprofit management, and children’s advocacy to her role.

Leslie Starr Heimov, Executive Director, has been with the Children’s Law Center of California (CLC) since 1992.  She began her legal career at CLC as a staff attorney, providing direct representation to parents and children in the dependency system, and later moved to a supervising attorney position. In 2004, Ms. Heimov became CLC’s first Policy Director, responsible for CLC’s legislative and policy agendas. In 2007, Ms. Heimov was named Executive Director and under her leadership, CLC expanded its programs to include representation of children in Los Angeles, Sacramento, and Placer counties utilizing a multidisciplinary model of representation.

Susan Abrams is CLC’s Director of Policy and Training. Ms. Abrams started in 2005 as an Equal Justice Works fellow and then worked as a staff attorney with a caseload of several hundred clients. She transitioned to focus on macro level policy work in 2011 and is now responsible for developing and implementing CLC’s public policy priorities and legislative advocacy. 

Barbara Harris, BA, JD, CDE is the Disproportionality Legal Training Coordinator for Washington State Office of Public Defense. Before assuming this position in January 2020, Barbara was WA Department Social Health Services’ Chief Review Judge for administrative hearing appeals for five years.

Amelia Watson (she/her) has been with the Washington State Office of Public Defense (OPD) Parents Representation Program (PRP) since 2006, and her most recent position is Lead Attorney. Prior to joining OPD, Ms. Watson worked for the Pierce County Department of Assigned Counsel where she had the honor of representing parents in dependency and termination of parental rights proceedings under the PRP Pilot. Ms. Watson received her undergraduate degree from the University of Washington in Women Studies and her law degree from Northeastern University School of Law.