Kanya Bennett joined ACS in February 2011 and currently serves as Director of Policy Development and Programming. In this capacity, she focuses on indigent defense and legal services; class actions; pleading standards; juvenile justice; sentencing and prison reform; and the death penalty. She also currently coordinates the Constitution in 2020 academic roundtables.
Before joining ACS, Kanya served as a Counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary for over seven years. In this capacity, she worked to advance the legislative and oversight agenda of the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties. This agenda included voting rights, fair housing, and criminal justice matters. Before joining the Committee on the Judiciary, Kanya served a one-year fellowship with the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation (CBCF) in a congressional office.
Kanya graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a Bachelor of Science in Journalism and from the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill) School of Law with a J.D.