Mary DeFusco

Mary DeFusco is an American lawyer. She is the Director of Training for the Defender Association of Philadelphia. Her most notable accomplishments include serving on the small committee which founded in the first drug court in the state of Pennsylvania, the Philadelphia Treatment Court, in 1997 and co-founding Dawn's Place, nonprofit organization that proactively supports women negatively affected by commercial sexual exploitation, in 2007. In addition to co-founding Dawn's Place, Mary DeFusco co-founded the Project Dawn Court in 2010. The Project Dawn Court is modeled after the Philadelphia Treatment Court. Designed for women with repeat prostitution offenses, the court seeks to both reduce recidivism rates and provide rehabilitation services, including sexual trauma recovery therapy, under court supervision.
In addition to her position at the Defender association of Philadelphia, Mary DeFusco is the active president of the board of Dawn's Place and a member of the advisory board for both the Ohlbaum on the Pennsylvania Rules of Evidence and The Villanova Law Institute to Address Commercial Sexual Exploitation. She is also an adjunct professor of Trial advocacy|Trial Advocacy at the Temple University Beasley School of Law and the Villanova University School of Law Charles Widger School of Law.
== Early life ==
Mary DeFusco was born in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania to Domenico and Antonetta (Fracassa) DeFusco. She had five siblings: Ubaldo (Lou)*, Anthony*, Florence, Maria*, and David*. She attended Archbishop Kennedy High School (later Kennedy-Kenrick Catholic High School). She was accepted into the University of Pennsylvania. 
== Education ==
Mary DeFusco received her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of Pennsylvania, where she also received The American Institute for Italian Culture Maria Rosa Award for Excellence in the Italian Language. She received her Juris Doctorate from the Temple University Beasley School of Law. During her time at the Beasley School of Law she received the International Academy of Trial Lawyers Award for Distinguished Achievement in the Art and Science of Advocacy. Over her summers as a law student, DeFusco clerked for Judge Vincent Cirillo of the Superior Court of Pennsylvania.
== Career ==
Mary DeFusco began her legal career as a Trial Attorney for the Defender Association of Philadelphia. She became the Deputy Chief of the Municipal Court Unit and, later, the Director of Training and Recruitment. During this time, she was the Defender Association of Philadelphia's representative on the oversight committees for the Philadelphia Treatment Court, The Project Dawn Court, and the DNA Testing Project Subcommittee for the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency.
=== Drug law ===
In 1995, Mary DeFusco was one of three lawyers on the original Treatment Court Oversight Committee at the Philadelphia Defender association. The Treatment Court Oversight Committee was part of a multi-agency collaboration to develop the Philadelphia Treatment Court. This team was responsible for the extensive research necessary to integrate treatment issues into the criminal justice system of Philadelphia. The Philadelphia Treatment Court was the first drug court in Pennsylvania and is modeled after the drug court in Miami-Dade County, Florida. 
=== Commercial sexual exploitation law ===
In 2009, after helping found Dawn's Place in 2007, DeFusco took lead in founding the Project Dawn Court, a problem-solving court which provided sexual trauma recovery treatment to women who had been trafficked, pimped, or prostituted. This court is modelled after the Treatment Court of Philadelphia and is the first of it's kind in Pennsylvania.
== Awards and achievements ==
* 2018 Gideon Award
* 2016 Dawn’s Place Champion Award
* 2013 Saint Rita Peace Award
* 2011 John Packel Award
* 2000 St. Thomas More Award
* 1997 Cesare Beccaria Award
== Personal life ==
Mary DeFusco lives in Pennsylvania with her husband and her two youngest children.
Category:American lawyers
Category:People from Conshohocken, Pennsylvania
Category:University of Pennsylvania alumni