Melba Pearson, Fellow and staff attorney at the Jack D. Gordon Institute for Public Policy at Florida International University (FIU), has been named chair of the American Bar Association Criminal Justice Section (CJS) for the 2025-26 term.
The Criminal Justice Section is composed of more than 15,000 legal professionals, including prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges, academics, and policymakers. Pearson will lead the CJS’s mission of advancing justice and fairness through research, advocacy, and collaboration among diverse voices in the legal system.
At FIU, Melba Pearson serves as director of prosecution projects, co-managing the MacArthur Foundation–funded Prosecutorial Performance Indicators to improve prosecutorial transparency and effectiveness. She previously served as deputy director of the ACLU of Florida, helping pass Amendment 4 to restore voting rights to people with felony convictions, and spent 16 years as a Miami-Dade County assistant state attorney handling domestic violence and homicide cases. She is also a former president of the National Black Prosecutors Association.
Read more about the announcement here.