Elaine A. Alexander, executive director, has been with ADI since 1973 and has held the position of executive director since 1979.  In those years she developed the concept of the district appellate project, pioneered the first such program (ADI), and helped create the statewide system that serves all of the California appellate courts.

A 1968 graduate of Yale Law School, Order of the Coif, Ms. Alexander is a member of the California and United States Supreme Court Bars. She has long been active in the San Diego and California appellate communities. She is currently serving on the California Judicial Council’s Appellate Advisory Committee and the Advisory Committee on Criminal Jury Instructions and has served on the Appellate Indigent Defense Oversight Advisory Committee. She coauthored the ADI Criminal Appellate Practice Manual.  She also has taught appellate advocacy as an adjunct professor.

Ms. Alexander has received numerous awards for her leadership in bringing quality legal services to the indigent. Among them are the Loren Miller Award from the State Bar, the Kathleen McCree Lewis Award from the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers, the awards for outstanding service to the profession (2008) and public attorney of the year (1990) from the San Diego County Bar Association, the E. Stanley Conant and Paul Bell Awards from the Defender Organizations of San Diego, the "War Horse" award from the San Diego Criminal Defense Bar Association, and the Defender Services Award from the National Legal Aid and Defender Association.

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