Nena Villamar

Nena Villamar

Maryland Office of the Public Defender

Coordinator, How To Prevent Family Separation and Keep Them Out of Court

Nenutzka (“Nena”) C. Villamar, Esq., is Chief of the Parental Defense Division (“PDD”) of the Maryland Office of the Public Defender, a role she has held since February, 2018. She leads the statewide division of 50 trial attorneys, social workers, parent advocates, and support staff in representing parents and legal guardians in Maryland’s circuit courts who are involved in the family regulation system. Prior to becoming Chief of the PDD, Ms. Villamar served as a staff attorney in the Appellate Division for more than a decade until she assumed the role of Special Counsel for Parental Defense Appellate Litigation. She has argued hundreds of cases in the Maryland Appellate Courts, including pivotal cases such as In re O.P., 470 Md. 225 (2020), In re Adoption/Guardianship of Chaden M., 422, MD. 498 (2011), Hall v. State, 448 Md. 318 (2016), In re J.J., 456 Md. 428 (2017), In re Damien F., 182 Md.App. 546 (2008); In re Adoption/Guardianship of T.A., Jr., 234 Md.App. 1 (2017), and In re Alijah Q., 195 Md.App. 491 (2010). Ms. Villamar’s introduction to and passion for representing parents in Child In Need of Assistance and Termination of Parental Rights hearings started in 1999, when she joined the Office of the Public Defender as a trial attorney in the Baltimore City office and represented more than 400 parents seeking to get their children out of the foster system.

Ms. Villamar received her J.D. from the University of Baltimore School of Law, M.A. in writing from California State University, Northridge, and her B.A. in telecommunications from Pepperdine University. Her first career was in publishing, where she was an editorial assistant for three magazines: Car Audio & Electronics, Audio/Video Interiors, and Volleyball. She has published a comment on copyright law, “Carter v. Helmsley-Spear and the Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990,”3 U. Balt. Intell. Prop. L.J., 167 (1995), and two short stories, “The Legend of Mt. Makiling,” Seven Stories from Seven Sisters: A Collection of Philippine Folktales (1995), and “Falling People,” Fiction by Filipinos in America (1993; reprinted 2020).

Ms. Villamar currently lives in Finksburg, Maryland, with her husband, two children, and two high-maintenance beagles.