Elizabeth Miller is the Assistant Director of the Office of the Ohio Public Defender (OPD). She has dedicated her legal career to ensuring the most vulnerable individuals in our society are afforded quality legal representation. Elizabeth first joined the OPD in 2004 and served as an Assistant State Public Defender in the OPD’s Juvenile Department—providing trial, appellate, and post-conviction representation to juveniles across the state, which included successfully arguing cases before the Supreme Court of Ohio. From 2011-2012, Elizabeth served as Director of the Juvenile Division of the Hamilton County Public Defender Office in Cincinnati. In 2012, Elizabeth rejoined the OPD as a Supervising Attorney in the OPD’s Legal Department, supervising attorneys providing appellate and post-conviction representation to incarcerated adults. In 2014, Elizabeth was appointed Assistant Director of the OPD, a profession that she feels is her calling and drives her to constantly work toward improving the support and services available to both OPD’s clients and staff members.

Elizabeth manages the daily operations of the agency and is the lead builder of its person-centered work culture. She directly supervises and mentors the agency’s four deputy directors and helps oversee the more than 180 staff who provide representation to capital, adult, and juvenile clients.

Elizabeth was recently elected to serve as the Vice President for the National Association for Public Defense and serves as an OPD representative on statewide commissions. She started OPD’s Diversity & Inclusion Working Group, and provides training for public defenders across the country. Elizabeth is a certified trainer in Crucial Conversations and has earned her Certificate in Government and Non-Profit Leadership from The Ohio State University’s John Glenn College. She graduated from Miami University (Ohio) with a degree in Political Science and Russian and received her J.D. from The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law.