Joan S. Meier, J.D., is the Founder and Executive Director of the Domestic Violence Legal Empowerment and Appeals Project (DV LEAP) and Professor of Clinical Law at George Washington University Law School.  DV LEAP litigates domestic violence appeals around the country and in the Supreme Court and has a particular specialty in custody and abuse.  Ms. Meier has litigated hundreds of domestic violence cases at both the trial and appellate court levels, engaged in national and local domestic violence advocacy efforts in collaboration with the domestic violence community, and delivers regular trainings and workshops for lawyers, judges, advocates, and mental health professionals.   She has published widely on domestic violence, custody and abuse, and parental alienation syndrome.  She served on the Mayor’s Commission on Violence Against Women and numerous other local and national bodies, and currently serves as the “lay” member of the American Psychological Association’s Board for Advancement of Psychology in the Public Interest.  At the law school, Ms. Meier has founded three pioneering inter-disciplinary domestic violence clinical programs and has received awards for her scholarship.  In June 2009 she was named the inaugural recipient of the American Bar Association Commission on Domestic Violence’s Sharon Corbitt Award for “Exemplary Legal Services to Victims of Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault, and Stalking.”  In 2005, Ms. Meier was a featured commentator in the PBS documentary, Breaking the Silence: Children’s Voices.  Professor Meier received her B.A. magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1980, her J.D. cum laude from the University of Chicago Law School in 1983, and clerked on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.