Maisha Colter MSW, JD has dedicated her professional life to advocating for the needs of children and families in crisis. Maisha has always found work that allows her to draw on the strengths of her educational training in social work and law.
Maisha attended school in New York, graduating from Syracuse University with dual bachelors’ degrees in Social Work and Public Policy. After obtaining her Masters in Social Work from New York University, Maisha was a licensed social worker in Brooklyn, New York working tirelessly with children and families involved with the State’s Child Protective Services Authority. She later returned to Law School with the sole goal of securing a law degree to continue to advocate for families in crisis. She received her law degree from Rutgers University in 2001.
After relocating to Texas 2003 she learned about Aid to Victims of Domestic Abuse (AVDA) and reached out to the Executive Director to volunteer; she was instead hired as the agency’s only staff attorney in 2004. She remained with the agency for almost 4 years and returned in 2012 as the agency’s managing attorney and quickly transitioned into the Director of the Legal Advocacy Program, leading the distinguished staff of attorneys and paralegals charged with fighting on behalf of countless victims of domestic abuse in Harris, Fort Bend, Austin, Grimes, Waller and Washington Counties. She was selected after a nationwide search to serves as AVDA’s Chief Executive Officer on August 1, 2019.