Shannice Anderson

Shannice Anderson

Maryland Office of the Public Defender

Community Collaborations Foster Sustainable Reentry

Shannice Anderson, a proud Baltimore native and a graduate of Bowie State University serves as the inaugural Community Engagement & Reentry Coordinator for Maryland's Office of the Public Defender. In this role, she created the “Community Engagement Reentry Project”- an initiative that bridges the legal system and the community to support individuals transitioning from incarceration. Shannice leads workshops, hosts community forums, structures individualized release plans and collaborates with attorneys, social workers and advocates to advance holistic representation for justice impacted individuals. She also serves on the Maryland Equitable Justice Collaborative’s reentry work group and several reentry advisory boards and committees across the state. With a background in Sociology and a passion for criminal justice reform, she brings empathy, experience, and a strategic vision to her work in building stronger, more inclusive communities. She also liaises with the Department of Parole and Probation and Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services in order to strengthen interagency partnerships that promote effective reentry programs, focus on resource coordination and reduce recidivism. Shannice strives to build pathways that break cycles of incarceration and foster stronger family and community bonds.