A new executive director has taken charge at Vermont Legal Aid, a prominent nonprofit that provides free legal counsel to historically underserved populations in the state.
The 55-year-old law firm — among the state’s largest — announced this week that Yasmin Dwedar started Aug. 16 as the organization’s new executive director. She succeeds former executive director Eric Avildsen, who retired last October after 34 years in the role. Wendy Morgan served as interim executive director during the search process.
In an interview Tuesday with VTDigger, Dwedar said she plans to focus on expanding Vermont Legal Aid’s reach to serve more people in need of representation.
“I have a lot of creative ideas around how to bring legal services to folks,” she said.
According to a press release issued Monday by Vermont Legal Aid, Dwedar has “over a decade of experience working to advance justice, equity, and inclusion for the underrepresented, underprivileged, and marginalized.”
Dwedar previously served as a supervising attorney at the Crime Victims Treatment Center and as a senior supervising attorney for the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission. She has also worked in the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office and with the New York City-based organization Access to Justice — and she served as a law clerk in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York and for the New York County Supreme Court.
Asked about her vision for Vermont Legal Aid’s future, Dwedar told VTDigger that one of her top priorities is establishing pipeline programs for prospective law students who otherwise wouldn’t have the resources to get into law school — such as the programs she herself benefited from as a first-generation American. She describes herself as a Muslim-American attorney of Egyptian and Filipino descent.
Dwedar said she’d also like to see Vermont Legal Aid expand its offerings, particularly immigration law for the state’s New American population, and add a special focus on serving Vermont’s most rural communities.
“I think one of the unique things about Vermont is, it’s a huge state,” Dwedar said. “There are a lot of remote areas where I think access to justice is very limited because, if you don’t have a car, or if you don’t have the financial means to get around, if you’re unable to meet with someone to assist you with your legal needs, then you might not know what your rights are. You might not know what potential remedies exist for you.”
As executive director, Dwedar will manage day-to-day operations, as well as lead fundraising, advocacy, marketing and community engagement activities, according to the press release.
With a staff of 90 working in five offices throughout the state, Vermont Legal Aid serves more than 25,000 clients annually. It works toward “systemic change,” focusing its civil litigation and advocacy efforts on issues that threaten Vermonters’ “rights, shelter, income, health, or well-being,” the organization wrote on Monday.
“We are thrilled to welcome Yasmin as our new Executive Director,” said Erin Jacobsen, president of Vermont Legal Aid’s board of trustees. “She will bring experience, enthusiasm, great communication skills, and an innovative spirit to our organization. We feel very lucky to have found her and look forward to a successful and invigorating chapter with Yasmin at the helm.”
