Meredith Hofford, M.A., is the Director for the District of Columbia Court System’s Center for Education and Training (CET.)  The CET sponsors over 175 training programs annually for all court employees including judicial officers, clerks and deputy clerks, support operations staff, managers and supervisors, and senior court executives.  CET also hosts several large conferences each year for judicial officers, court staff and members of the D.C. community.  Over 15,000 training hours are completed annually by judges and employees who participate in the Court’s training activities.  Prior to joining the D.C. Courts, Ms. Hofford was employed for 20 years at the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, headquartered in Reno, Nevada, where she founded the Family Violence Department (FVD) in 1987.  The work of the FVD profoundly influenced how domestic violence cases are handled by state courts across the nation, how the issues involving children in violent families are addressed by the courts, how judges are trained on domestic violence matters and how state legislatures develop effective domestic violence legislation. Prior to her national work in the area of family and domestic violence, Ms. Hofford worked in South Carolina in the fields of substance abuse and juvenile justice.  She has served on numerous local, state and national advisory committees and commissions and as a consultant to a wide variety of public and private organizations.  Her work and her strategic vision has been shared with others through hundreds of workshops, trainings, plenary presentations and keynotes at local, national and international conferences and through dozens of publications.  Ms. Hofford earned her Masters Degree from The George Washington University and her Bachelors Degree from Clemson University.