COLETTE TVEDT is the Executive Director of the Denver Colorado Municipal Defender Office. Prior to this role, she was in private practice, where she represented individuals charged with complex felony cases in state and federal court. Before to starting her law firm in Denver, she served as the Director of Public Defense Training and Reform for the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL). In that capacity, she focused on developing and delivering premier training programs for public defense provider’s nationwide focusing on racism in the criminal justice system, police misconduct, pretrial detention, challenging forensic evidence, and trial skills. Colette has devoted her career over the past 25 years to representing poor people accused of crimes.

Prior to moving to Denver, she was a public defender in Massachusetts and Washington State and in private practice as partner with the Seattle law firm, Schroeter, Goldmark & Bender. She has organized training programs for thousands of defense lawyers and served as a Clinical Professor of Law at Suffolk University Law School in Boston as well as an adjunct professor at the University of Washington School of Law and at Seattle University Law School. She is a faculty member and board member of the National Criminal Defense College (NCDC). Colette Tvedt is an honor graduate of Rutgers University, where she also attended law school. She is a certified yoga instructor.