Michael E. Donnelly, chair

Michael E. Donnelly served as an assistant district attorney in Worcester County for more than 25 years, and is currently the director of the Masters in Public Administration program and an assistant professor of business, law and public policy at Anna Maria College in Paxton. Donnelly was the founding manager of the Child Abuse Unit at the Worcester County District Attorney’s office and supervised the Juvenile Prosecution Unit. He has taught juvenile law courses at Western New England College School of Law, instructed medical students at UMass Medical School about child abuse, youth violence and teen pregnancy; and also worked with undergraduate engineering students at Worcester Polytechnic Institute on researching ways to improve the use of forensic evidence in child abuse.

Wendy Wolf, chair

Wendy Wolf is the coordinator of the Committee for Public Counsel Services’ (CPCS) Juvenile Defense Network, a training and support project established to meet the needs of juvenile defense lawyers who represent children in delinquency and youthful offender cases. Wolf joined CPCS in 1985 and joined the Youth Advocacy Project as the supervising attorney in 1996. In 2007, Wolf was honored with the MBA’s Access to Justice Defender Award in recognition of her commitment to providing criminal legal services to low-income clients.  

Juvenile and Child Welfare

Juvenile and Child Welfare - The Juvenile and Child Welfare section will enable practitioners who represent clients in abuse and neglect, delinquency, youthful offender, and status offender cases to meet in one forum to address the variety of issues affecting children and families, will provide opportunities to work on projects involving proposed and current legislation, to develop and present CLE seminars, roundtables and open section meetings and to publish articles.

Any questions, please contact Jean at [e-mail jstevens].